PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


BX  5199   .H4  S5  1895 
Smith,  George,  1833-1919. 
Bishop  Heber,  poet  and  chiej 
missionary  to  the  East 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 
in  2015 


littps://arcliive.org/details/bishopheberpoetcOOsmit 


WORKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


The  Life  of  William  Carey,  D.D.,  Shoemaker  and  Missionary, 

Professor  of  Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  Marathi  in  the  College  of  Fort 
William,  Calcutta.    Crown  8vo.    7s.  6d.    Second  Edition. 

Henry  Martyn,  Saint  and  Scholar,  First  Modern  Missionary  to 

the  Mohammedans.  Small  4to.  los.  6d.  R.  T.  S.  Also  New  York 
and  Chicago  Editions. 

The  Life  of  John  Wilson,  D.D.,  F.R.S.,  for  Fifty  Years  Philan- 
thropist and  .Scholar  in  the  East.    Crown  8vo.    9s.    Second  Edition. 

The  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D.,  LL.D.    Royal  8vo.    2  vols. 

24s.  Popular  Edition.  Hodder.  gs.  Also  New  V'ork  and  Toronto 
Editions. 

Stephen  Hislop,  Pioneer  Missionary  and  Naturalist  in  Central 
India.    Crown  8vo.    7s.  6d.    Second  Edition. 

A  Modem  Apostle  :  Alexander  N.  Somerville,  D.D.  Crown 

8vo.    7s.  6d.    Second  Edition. 

The  Student's  Geography  of  British  India,  Political  and  Physi- 
cal, with  Maps.    Crown  8vo.    7s.  6d. 

The  Conversion  of  India,  from  Pantoenus  to  the  Present  Time. 
Crown  8vo.    7s.  6d.    Also  New  York  and  Chicago  Editions. 

Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,  from  Abraham  and  Paul 
to  Carey,  Livingstone,  and  Duff.    Fourth  Edition.    T.  and  T.  Clark. 

In  the  field  0/  Biography  every  year  f  reduces  its  han'csi  of  lives,  netu 
and  old,  front  Henry  Martyn — whose  recent  Memoir  by  Dr.  George  Smith, 
the  historiographer  of  missions,  contains  muck  new  7natter  besides  his  'well- 
knoiun  journals— to  those  H'Jio  have  but  just  passed  to  their  rest.  .  .  . 

,{  very  strihin-:  estimate  of  the  injluence  of  Forei^'u  Missions  is  con- 
tained in  Dr.  George  Smith's  latest  '.rork,  entitled  The  ConNersion  of  India, 
a  volume  of  the  deepest  interest  towards  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  Asia. 
The  veto  an  worker  in  this  spe,  ial  field  of  literature  brings  to  his  subject 
all  the  charm  of  a  welf practised  'pen.  and  all  the  breadth  of  induction 
founded  on  7vide  and  mintde  acguaintance  with  the  particulars  of  a  subject 
almost  limitless  in  extent  and  importance.  — The  Quarterly  Retview, 
No.  ,55,  January  .894. 


JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET 


BISHOP  HEBER 


TO 

Mary  Agnes 
MY  WIFE 


'//le  ^c/r/:^rac/^Mn  ^h//.)  ^H'/Zf 


\ nal  dL    ne.Der,    bp.  ot  v.Qicu-+i  j 


BISHOP  HEBER 

POET  AND  CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 
SECOND  LORD  BISHOP  OF  CALCUTTA 
178M826 


GEORGE  SMITH,  CLE.,  LL.D 

AUTHOR  OF  'WILLIAM  CAREY,  D.D.';  '  HENRY  MARTYN,  SAINT  AND  SCHOLAR,'  ETC. 
FELLOW  OF  THE  ROYAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  ROYAL  STATISTICAL  SOCIETIES 


Mr;  0o/3oO  ■  6701  e'xw  ras  /cXeis  ToO  p5ou  Kal  tov  BavaTov 


LONDON 

JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET 
189s 


PREFACE 


Two  generations  have  passed  away  since  the  death  of  Reginald 
Heber  in  the  bath  at  Trichinopoly.  His  widow  promptly 
pubHshed,  in  two  quarto  volumes,  a  Memoir  of  his  Life.  In 
these  the  most  lovable  and  the  most  laborious  of  all  English 
gentlemen  and  missionaries  lies  buried.  His  verse,  and 
especially  his,  as  yet,  matchless  missionary  hymn,  have  kept 
his  name  in  remembrance. 

The  time  has  come  to  record  the  part  which  he  took  in  the 
revival  of  the  Church  of  England  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  and  what  he  accomplished,  or  set  in  motion,  for  the 
development  of  the  early  missionary  enterprise,  especially  in 
the  south  of  India.  For  years  he  stood  almost  alone  among 
the  students  of  Oxford,  the  squires  of  England,  and  the  clergy 
of  the  Church,  in  the  personal  support  and  public  advocacy 
of  the  four  great  Missionary  and  Bible  Societies  of  his  youth, 
and  in  catholic  co-operation  with  Nonconformists.  A  patriot 
in  the  most  stirring  period  of  our  national  history,  he  was  of 
no  party  in  the  Church.  A  theologian  of  ripe  scholarship  and 
evangelic  zeal,  he  resented  alike  the  extremes  of  the  so-called 
Calvinists,  and  the  pelagianism  of  the  Arminians  of  his  day. 
He  was  for  Christ ;  he  loved  and  he  did  much  to  elevate  the 
great  Reformed  Church  which  he  loyally  served ;  he  worked 
with  all  good  men,  or  wished  them  well  in  the  one  divinely 
commanded  cause.    His  short  episcopate,  while  he  was  still  a 


viii 


BISHOP  HEBER 


young  man,  was  the  rich  and  fruitful  outcome  of  such  zeal,  such 
wisdom,  and  such  charity. 

While  striving  to  put  Reginald  Heber's  public  life  in  its 
right  perspective  and  setting  in  England,  and  especially  in 
India,  1  have  attempted  to  reveal  the  man  who  so  charmed 
his  contemporaries,  both  men  and  women.  I  thank  his 
nephew,  the  present  Rector  of  Hodnet,  the  Rev.  Richard 
Hugh  Cholmondeley,  for  most  courteous  assistance.  I  grate- 
fully acknowledge  the  help  of  the  present  Rector  of  Malpas, 
the  Rev.  and  the  Hon.  W.  Trevor  Kenyon,  especially  in  per- 
mitting me  to  publish,  for  the  first  time,  Heber's  letters  and 
verses  to  Charlotte  Dod,  Edge  Hall,  Cheshire.  Reginald 
Heber's  relation  to  her,  as  to  Maria  Leycester,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Augustus  Hare,  forms  another  chapter  in  the  history  of  literary 
and  spiritual  friendships,  like  William  Cowper's  not  long  before. 

The  illustrations  have  been  reproduced  chiefly  from  the 
original  wood  engravings  cut  from  Heber's  own  sketches. 
The  Portrait  is  an  intaglio  from  an  early  proof  of  the  copper- 
plate engraving  of  the  oil  painting  in  All  Souls  College,  Oxford, 
by  Phillips,  R.A.  The  pictures  of  the  old  Cathedral  of  St.  John 
and  of  the  Mausoleum  of  Job  Charnock,  the  founder  of  Calcutta, 
are  from  platinotypes  by  Professor  Thomson,  M.A.,  of  the  Duff 
College,  Calcutta.  The  Rock  of  Trichinopoly  is  from  a  recent 
photograph.  The  Map  of  India  in  Bishop  Heber's  time  has 
been  reproduced  from  the  original  copperplate  of  J.  Walker's 
work. 

Serami'ore  House,  Merchiston, 

Edinburgh,  26//^  September  1895. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
Heber's  Place  in  Missionary  Biography 

PAGE 

History  of  Christian  Missions  still  to  be  written       .  .  .  i 


August  Neander       .......  I 

Biographies  the  materials  of  history  .....  2 

Reginald  Heber's  unique  position     .....  2 

The  Seven  Chief  Missionaries  to  India        ....  3 

The  three  American  pioneers  .....  4 

Bishops  Caldwell  and  Valpy  French  ....  4 

Bishop  Berkeley,  the  missionary  philosopher  •  .  •  5 


CHAPTER  n 
Malpas  and  Oxford 
1783-180S 


Heber,  Cotton,  and  the  men  of  Cheshire     ....  6 

Malpas  and  Ilaybcrg           ......  7 

Richard  Heber,  M.  P.,  and  his  books           ....  8 

Reginald  Heber's  gracious  boyhood  .....  9 

Contrasted  with  Carey  and  Martyn  .....  10 

His  schools,  reading,  and  drawing    .....  12 

At  Oxford  :  Brasenose  and  All  Souls  in  1800          ...  16 

His  Latin  poem  '9 

His  rah-s/hic  and  Walter  Scott        .....  20 

Early  friendship  with  Charlotte  Dod  and  verses       .  •  .22 

His  father's  death     .......  25 

His  missionary  enthusiasm    ......  27 

a  2 


X 


BISHOP  HEBER 


CHAPTER  in 


The  Grand  Tour  in  the  Years  of  Austerlitz  ani 


^Reginald  Heber  the  idol  of  Oxford  University 
Lands  with  Thornton  at  Gothenburg' 
Survey  of  Norway  and  Sweden 
Petersburg  and  the  league  against  Buonaparte 
Austerlitz  ..... 
Moscow  and  the  death  of  William  Pitt 
The  Scottish  Mission  in  the  Caucasus 
History  of  the  Cossaks.    Sebastopol  . 
The  tomb  of  Howard 

Hungary,  Vienna,  Central  Europe,  and  Berlin 
Jena  ...... 

The  General  Election  of  1806 
Welcome  home  to  Hodnet  . 


CHAPTER  IV 

HoDNET  Parish  and  Hodnet  Friends 


Hodnet  parish  and  Hawkstone  Park 

Introduced  to  Wilberforce— "  The  Slave  Trade  is  no  more 

Influence  of  the  Clapham  Sect 

First  experiences  as  Rector  of  Hodnet 

Of  no  Church  party,  but  broadly  evangelical 

Married  in  1 809  ..... 

Builds  the  new  rectory  .... 

Clive's  grave  in  Hebcr's  chapelry 

Preaches  for  the  Bible  Society 

On  worldly  amusements  .... 
Death  of  his  young  brother  and  daughter.    His  prayers 
Maria  Leycester,  afterwards  Mrs.  Augustus  Hare  . 
Preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn  .... 
Birthday  verses  and  letters  to  Charlotte  Dod 


PAGE 
28 
29 
30 

33 

■  36 
39 
42 
43 
44 
45 
47 
48 
49 


51 
52 
53 
55 
55 
57 
58 
56 
61 
62 
6-, 
64 
67 
68 


1805-1806 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

Palestine  as  an  Oratorio  by  Crotch  .  .  .  .  .70 

Mrs.  Fry  and  her  work  in  Newgate  .  .  .  .  .72 

Present  fruit  of  Heber's  labours  in  Hodnet  .  .  .  ■  7^ 


CHAPTER  V 

Poet  and  Critic 
1810-1822 


Heber  constrained  to  write  hymns  for  his  congregation       .  .  79 

His  ideal  of  hymnody  ......  80 

Missionary  collection  in  every  church  in  England     .  .  .81 

Heber  writes  "  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains  "  .  .  .82 

H.  H.  Milman's,  Scott's,  and  .Southey's  contributions         .  .  85 

Heber's  fifty-seven  hymns    ......  90 

His  place  in  English  hymnology       .  .  .  .  .91 

His  MS.  hymn-book  with  music      .....  92 

Works  and  Life  of  Jeremy  Taylor         ....  92 

Heber,  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  Milton  contrasted         .  .  '93 

Heber's  Quarterly  Review  articles    .  .  .  .  .96 

His  Poems  and  Translations  dedicated  to  his  brother  .  .  97 

Heber  on  John  Wesley        ......  99 

On  Hymns  and  Lord  Byron  ......  loi 

Hawarden  Castle — A  Song  of  the  Bow        ....  103 

Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone  and  Mrs.  Gladstone  on  Heber  .  104 


CHAPTER  VI 

Chief  Missionary  of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  East 
1823-1826 


Palestine,  a  missionary  poem  .....  105 

Heber's  appeals  for  the  Bible  Society  ....  106 

His  proposal  for  union  of  the  Church's  two  Missionary  Societies  .  108 
His  appeals  for  the  Church  Missionary  Society        .  .  .ill 

His  Bampton  Lectures  on  the  Comforter     .  .  .  .114 

Wynn  offers  him  the  Bishopric  of  Calcutta  .  .  .  .116 

Heber's  mother  and  his  wife's  family  oppose  .  .  .119 

Appointment  approved  by  the  King  and  accepted    .  .  .120 


BISHOP  HEBER 

PAGE 


Letters  and  verses  to  Charlotte  Dod .....  121 

Heber  analyses  his  motives  ......  124 

Quotes  the  farewell  of  Philoctetes     .  .  .  .  .127 

Last  sermons  in  Hodnet  and  Malpas  ....  128 

Maria  Leycester's  searchings  of  heart  ....  129 

Consecration  in  Lambeth  Palace      .  .  .  .  -133 

,  '  ^  Heber  declares  himself  chief  missionary  in  the  East .  .  .  135 

CHAPTER  VII 
India  and  the  Voyage  in  1823 

Lord  Amherst  Governor-General  at  the  same  time  .  .  .  137 

George  Canning  and  the  great  Administrators  then  in  India  .  138 

Church  of  England  non-missionary  till  Heber's  arrival        .  -139 
The  voyage  and  its  occupations        .....  I42 

First  impressions  of  Bengal  .  .  .  .  .  .147 

Arrival  at  Calcutta    .......  148 

The  old  Cathedral  of  St.  John         .  .  .  .  .150 

Prayer  on  beginning  his  episcopate  .  .  .  .  .151 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Calcutta  and  Lower  Bengal 
1824 


King  William's  missionary  charter  of  1698  .  .  .  .152 

Job  Charnock,  founder  of  Calcutta,  and  his  tomb    .  .  -153 

Middleton  the  first  Bishop  of  Calcutta        ....  154 

Heber  makes  Corrie  Archdeacon  and  praises  Thomason     .  156 
Titaghur  and  Serampore ;  Carey  and  Marshman     .  •  157 

Suttee  and  its  prevention      ......  160 

The  cholera  morbus  .......  162 

Ordination  of  Christian  David         .....  162 

Calcutta  and  life  there  163 
Bell's  educational  system  and  Mrs.  Wilson's  schools  •  l66 

Lord  Amherst  and  his  family  .....  169 

The  peasantry  of  Bengal  .  .  •  •  .170 

Rarrackpore  Park     .  .  ■  •  176 

The  swinging  orgie  .  .  .  •  179 


CONTENTS 


xiii 


CHAPTER  IX 
To  Dacca  and  the  Himalayas 
1824 

PAGE 


Heber's  primary  charge  in  Calcutta  .....  182 

His  answer  to  Abbe  Dubois  .  .  .  .  .  .183 

Departure  on  his  visitation  of  the  diocese     ....  187 

Mr.  Gladstone's  Latin  translation  of  Heber's  "  Verses  to  His  Wife  "  188 
Mr.  Stow's  last  hours  .  .  .  .  .  .  igo 

Missionary  prospects  at  Dacca         .  .  .  .  .194 

Heber's  "  Evening  Walk  in  Bengal  "  ....  196 

His  mission  to  the  hill  tribes  of  Rajmahal    ....  198 

Description  of  the  Bahar  uplands     .....  201 

On  the  conversion  of  the  natives      .....  202 

At  Monghyr,  Patna,  and  Dinapoor  .....  204 

At  Benares   ........  207 

Native  Christian  marriage  and  divorce         ....  208 

In  Lucknow  and  before  the  King  of  Oudh   ....  210 

III  sickness  and  prospect  of  death     .  .  .  .  .212 

"  Communication "  for  his  wife  in  case  of  death      .  .  .  214 


CHAPTER  X 
Ai.MORA  TO  Bombay 
1824-1825 

Results  of  the  Goorkha  war  . 
On  the  way  to  Almora 

.Shooting  tigers  .... 

The  Himalayan  peaks  and  the  Chinese  frontier 

First  Christian  service  in  Almora 

Political  unrest  among  the  people 

Kumaon  and  its  beauty 

Meerut  and  the  Christian  Sepoy 

Delhi.    Reception  by  the  Emperor  Akbar  Shah 

The  hall  of  audience  described 

Agra  and  the  Taj  Mahal 

Fatehpoor  Sikri  .... 

Through  the  Central  India  and  Rajpootana  States 

Malcolm,  Ochterlony,  Todd,  and  Gerard 


217 
218 
222 
223 
224 
225 
226 
229 
232 
234 
23s 
237 


XIV 


BISHOP  HEBER 


PAGE 

Banswara  and  the  Bheels.  Kaira  .....  239 
Condition  of  the  people  of  India  .....  250 
Letter  to  the  Serampore  missionaries  ....  255 

Last  letter  to  Maria  Leycester         .....  258 


CHAPTER  XI 
Bombay  and  Ceylon 
1825 


Bombay  contrasted  with  Calcutta     .....  260 

Elephanta  and  its  cave  temple         ....  262 

Salsette  and  the  Kanheri  excavations  ....  265 

Karle  cave  and  Kailas         ......  268 

Mountstiiart  Elphinstone  and  Bombay  society         .  .  .  270 

Heber's  visitation  in  Bombay  .....  273 

Ceylon  and  its  missions        ......  275 

Point  de  Galle         .......  276 

Reception  at  Colombo        ......  277 

The  cinnamon  gardens  and  peelers  .....  278 

Catholic  letter  to  the  clergy  ......  281 

Proposals  to  improve  the  Dutch  system       ....  285 

Visit  to  Kandy         .......  287 

Heber's  description  of  Ceylon  to  his  mother  .  .  .  289 

Return  to  Calcutta   .......  291 


CHAPTER  XII 
Madras 
1825 


Missionary  activity  in  Calcutta        .....  292 

Lord  Combermere  and  the  siege  of  Bhurtpoor         .  .  294 

Heber  on  the  re-ordination  of  Lutherans     ....  295 

Abdool  Massee'h's  ordination  .....  297 

Heber's  conversation  ......  299 

Dutch  Chinsurah  becomes  British    .....  300 

The  Armenians  and  Heber  ......  301 

Marriage  in  the  British  Army  .....  302 

Heber  and  Joshua  Marshman  .....  303 

At  Madras    ........  305 


CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

Dr.  Bell's  Male  Asylum   306 

Bishop's  visitation  at  St.  George's    .....  307 

Sir  Thomas  Munro  .......  3°^ 

Heber  "  almost  worn  out "  ......  309 

At  Pondicherry  and  Cuddalor         .          .          .          .          •  3'3 

Among  the  Siva  pagodas     .          •          ■          •          ■          •  3'5 

On  caste  and  the  Nestorians .           .....  316 

The  tomb  of  Schwartz         ......  320 

At  Tanjor  :  the  Maharaja  Serfojee    .....  321 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Trichinopoly— The  Rock  and  the  Bath 
1S26 

The  Rock  of  Trichinopoly    .  .  .  .  .  .326 

Heber  Memorial  School  now  S. P.O.  College         .  .  .  327 

On  Schwartz  .......  329 

Heber's  last  letter— A  plea  for  the  Christians         .  -  -331 

His  last  sermon  and  confirmation  services    ....  332 

His  favourite  hymn  .......  335 

Death  in  the  bath     .......  337 

Burial  in  St.  John's  Church,  Trichinopoly  Fort       .  .  -338 

Sir  Thomas  Munro  and  Sir  C.  E.  Grey  on  Heber    .  .  .34° 

Maria  Leycester's  letter       ......  342 

The  Heber  window  in  St.  Oswald's,  Malpas  .  .  .343 

Eulogy  by  Bishop  Stubbs     ......  344 

Fifty-six  missionary  bishops  now  in  Heber's  diocese  .  .  346 

Bishop  Butler  on  Foreign  Missions  .....  348 

The  converts  now  "  a  mighty  multitude  "     ....  349 

Southey's  verses  on  Reginald  Heber  ....  350 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Bibliography        .......  352 

APPENDIX 

The  Heber  Family        ......  357 

INDEX  361 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Bishop  Ilcber  at  Forty  .... 

Frontispiece 

Heber's  Rector)',  Hodnet  .... 

58 

On  the  Left  Bank  of  the  Hoogli 

147 

The  Bishop  of  Calcutta's  Attendants 

149 

.St.  John's,  Calcutta— Heber's  Cathedral 

To  fcue  1 50 

Mausoleum  of  Job  Charnock,  Calcutta,  1692 

153 

Shiva  Pagodas  and  Ghaut  beside  Heber's  House,  Titaghur 

159 

Bengali  Peasantry  ..... 

171 

Thibetan  Ghyals  in  Barrackpore  Park 

•75 

Barrackpore  Park — Governor-General's  Country  Seat 

177 

The  Swinging  Orgie  .... 

181 

Map  of  India  in  1824  .... 

Toface 

i8S 

Panchway  Boat  ..... 

186 

Bengali  Fruit-Boat  ...... 

191 

Augustus  Cleveland's  Monument  at  Bhagulpoor 

199 

On  the  Ganges  in  Bahar  .... 

201 

The  Ekka  Conveyance,  Monghyr     .           .           .  . 

204 

Granary  built  at  Patna  after  the  Great  Famine  of  1777 

205 

On  the  Ganges  above  Dinapoor       .          .          .  . 

206 

Gothic  Gateway  at  Ghazipoor         .          .          .  . 

207 

Roumi  Durwaza  and  Imambara,  Lucknow  . 

210 

Kumaon  Sikh,  with  Attendant        .          .          .  . 

221 

The  Great  Mosque,  Fatehpoor  Sikri 

235 

Palace  of  the  Maharawal  of  Banswara 

239 

Bheel  Inclosure,  Tambresra  .          .          .          .  . 

240 

Jain  Temple  in  Kaira           .           .           .           .  . 

242 

Climbing  the  Himalayas      .          .          .          .  . 

244 

Vepery  Church,  Madras      .          .          .          .  . 

311 

The  Rock  of  Trichinopoly    .        '  . 

To  face 

326 

I 


How  awful  now,  when  night  and  silence  brood 

O'er  Earth's  repose  and  Ocean's  solitude, 

To  trace  the  dim  and  devious  paths  that  guide 

Along  Kanheri's '  steep  and  craggy  side. 

Where,  girt  with  gloom,  inhabited  by  fear, 

The  mountain  homes  of  India's  gods  appear  ! 

Range  above  range  they  rise,  each  hollow  cave 

Darkling  as  death,  and  voiceless  as  the  grave  ; 

Save  that  the  waving  weeds  in  each  recess 

With  rustling  music  mock  its  loneliness  ; 

And  beasts  of  blood  disturb,  with  stealthy  tread, 

The  chambers  of  the  breathless  and  the  dead. 

All  else  of  life,  of  worship,  past  away, 

The  ghastly  idols  fall  not,  nor  decay  ; 

Retain  the  lip  of  scorn,  the  rugged  frown. 

And  grasp  the  blunted  sword  and  useless  crown  ; 

Their  altars  desecrate,  their  names  untold, 

The  hands  that  formed,  the  hearts  that  feared — how  cold  ! 

Now  all  are  cold — the  votary  as  his  god — 
And  by  the  shrine  he  feared,  the  courts  he  trod, 

The  livid  snake  extends  his  glancing  trail,  ■» 
And  lifeless  murmurs  mingle  on  the  gale. 


'  The  rock-cut  temples  of  Salsette,  near  Bombay. 


xvlii 


BISHOP  HEBER 


II 

'Tis  past — the  mingled  dream, — though  slow  and  grey 

On  mead  and  mountain  break  the  dawning  day ; 

Though  stormy  wreaths  of  lingering  cloud  oppress 

Long  time  the  winds  that  breathe,  the  rays  that  bless  : 

They  come,  they  come.    Night's  fitful  visions  fly 

Like  autumn  leaves,  and  fade  from  Fancy's  eye  ; 

So  shall  the  God  of  might  and  mercy  dart 

His  day-beams  through  the  caverns  of  the  heart ; 

Strike  the  weak  idol  from  its  ancient  throne. 

And  vindicate  the  temple  for  His  own. 

Nor  will  He  long  delay.    A  purer  light 

Than  Mithra  cast  shall  claim  a  holier  rite  ; 

A  mightier  voice  than  Mithra's  priests  could  pour 

Resistless  soon  shall  sound  along  the  shore  ; 

Its  strength  of  thunder  vanquished  fiends  shall  own. 

And  idols  tremble  through  their  limbs  of  stone. 

Vain  now  the  lofty  light,  the  marble  gleam. 

Of  the  keen  shaft  that  rose  by  Gunga's  stream  ! 

When  round  its  base  the  hostile  lightnings  glowed. 

And  mortal  insult  mocked  a  god's  abode, 

What  power,  destroyer,'  seized  with  taming  trance 

Thy  serpent  sceptre,  and  thy  withering  glance  ? 

Low  in  the  dust,  its  rocky  sculptures  rent. 

Thine  own  memorial  proves  thee  impotent  ; 

Thy  votaries  mourn  thy  cold  unheeding  sleep. 

Chide  where  they  praised,  and  where  they  worshipped  weep. 


1  Siva.  This  column  was  dedicated  to  him  at  Benares  ;  and  a  tradition 
prevailed  among  his  worshippers  that  as  soon  as  it  should  fall  one  universal 
religion  would  extend  over  India,  and  Brama  be  no  more  worshipped,  ll  was 
lately  thrown  down  in  a  quarrel  between  the  Hindoos  and  Musalmans.  See 
Hfbers  Journal. 


JOHN  RUSKIN  ON  INDIA'S  CONVERSION  xix 


III 

Yes— he  shall  fall,  though  once  his  throne  was  set 
Where  the  high  heaven  and  crested  mountains  met  ; 
Though  distant  shone  with  many  an  azure  gem 
The  glacier  glory  of  his  diadem  ; 

Though  sheets  of  sulphurous  cloud  and  wreathed  storm 
Cast  veil  of  terror  round  his  shadowy  form. 
All,  all  are  vain  !    It  comes,  the  hallowed  day, 
Whose  dawn  shall  rend  that  robe  of  fear  away  ; 
Then  shall  the  torturing  spells  that  midnight  knew 
Far  in  the  cloven  dells  of  Mount  Meru  ; 
Then  shall  the  moan  of  frenzied  hymns  that  sighed 
Down  the  dark  vale  where  Gunga's  waters  glide, 
Then  shall  the  idol  chariot's  thunder  cease 
Before  the  steps  of  them  that  publish  peace. 

Already  are  they  heard — how  fair,  how  fleet, 
Along  the  mountains  flash  their  bounding  feet  ! 
Disease  and  Death  before  their  presence  fly  ; 
Truth  calls,  and  gladdened  India  hears  the  cry, 
Deserts  the  darkened  path  her  fathers  trod. 
And  seeks  redemption  from  the  Incarnate  God. 

John  Ruskin. 

From  his  Newdigate  prize  poem  (1839)  Salselle  and  Ekfhanla,  privately 
printed  in  1850,  and  reprinted  in  1879. 


BISHOP  HEBER 


CHAPTER  I 

heber's  place  in  missionary  biography 

A  HISTORY  of  the  Missions  from  Cliristendom  to  the  non- 
Christian  majority  of  mankind  has  yet  to  be  attempted. 
Neander  stands  alone  among  Church  historians  in  working 
out  his  aim  "  to  exhibit  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ  as 
a  hving  witness  of  the  divine  power  of  Christianity."  These 
words  he  wrote  in  1825,  and  in  1842  he  dedicated  the  second 
edition  of  his  first  volume  to  F.  von  Schelling,  because  the 
great  thinker  testified  of  "  that  which  constitutes  the  goal  and 
central  point  of  all  history,  and,  so  far  as  it  comes  within  the 
province  of  science,  prepared  the  way  for  that  new  Christian 
age  of  the  world  whose  dawn  already  greets  us  from  afar." 
Meander's  Flaiiting  of  Christianity,  his  Tertiillian,  his  Julian, 
his  Chrysostom,  his  St.  Bernard,  his  Memorials  of  Christian 
Life  in  the  Dark  Ages,  his  General  History  of  the  Christian 
Religion  and  Church,  and  indeed  his  Life  of  Jesus  Christ 
underlying  the  whole,  give  a  history  of  Christianity  as  an 
aggressive  missionary  system  and  fact  to  the  Reformation. 
Up  to  that  period  we  may  be  content  with  the  works  of  the 
Jew  who,  becoming  a  new  creature  in  Jesus  Christ  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  changed  his  name  from  David  Mendel  to  August 
Neander.  We  look  for  a  successor  of  the  same  spirit  and 
aim,  and  the  same  learning  and  scientific  method,  to  do 
similar  justice  to  missionary  Christianity  since  the  English 
and  German  Reformers  prepared  the  Bible  message  in  the 
tongues  of  the  common  people,  and  geographical  discovery 

L 


2 


BISHOP  HEBER 


and  colonisation  first  began  to  put  the  Christian  nations, 
Reformed,  Greek,  and  Latin,  in  trust  for  the  dark  races. 

Meanwhile,  the  present  writer,  having  spent  more  than 
twenty  years  of  his  life  in  India,  and  nearly  other  twenty 
in  the  daily  management  and  study  of  Missions  there  and 
in  other  continents  and  islands,  has  sought  to  provide 
materials  for  the  future  history  of  the  Church  in  India.  His 
general  and  most  imperfect  sketch  of  The  Conversion  of  India, 
he  proposes,  should  life  be  given,  to  re-write  from  such  new 
materials  as  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  may  supply. 
The  dictum  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  that  the  history  of  what  man 
has  accomplished  in  this  world  is  at  bottom  the  history  of 
the  great  men  who  have  worked  here,  is  more  true  of  pioneer 
missionaries — he  himself  has  eulogised  King  and  Saint  Olaf  ^ 
of  Norway — than  of  any  other  class  of  heroes,  for  they  directly 
obey  a  divine  call,  and  are  strong  in  the  Lord's  promises  which 
accompany  the  call.  So  Froude  has  more  recently  taught  that 
"  the  object  of  history  is  to  discover  and  make  visible  illus- 
trious men,  and  pay  them  ungrudging  honour."  Of  his  pre- 
cursor and  cousin,  our  Lord  Himself  said,  "  He  was  the  lamp 
that  burneth  and  shineth,  and  ye  were  willing  to  rejoice  for  a 
season  in  his  light " — "  yet  he  that  is  but  little  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  greater  than  he." 

Reginald  Heber  completes  the  group  of  the  Seven  Chief 
Missionaries  to  India  and  the  East,  whose  lives,  extending 
from  1746  to  1878 — a  period  of  132  years — the  present 
biographer  has  now  written.  Heber  stands  alone  as  the 
one  English  gentleman — rector  and  squire,  poet  and  scholar- — 
who  gave  himself  in  early  life  to  the  missionary  enterprise 
when  the  Church  of  England  was  reproached  by  its  own  son, 
Southey,  for  that  hostility  which  Henry  Martyn  was  even  then 
beginning  to  convert  into  devotion  to  the  cause.  What  Heber, 
representing  Oxford,  as  Martyn  inspired  Cambridge,  did  "to 
elevate  the  Church  of  England,"  to  use  Mr.  Gladstone's  happy 
phrase,  in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  century,  by  his  gracious 
character,  broad  charity,  deep  spirituality,  parish  work,  cultured 
preaching,  genial  learning,  missionary  enthusiasm,  and  sacred 

^  Lcctiin-s  0)1  Heroes,  Hero- Worship,  and  the  Heroic  in  History,  delivered 
in  1840.  Ste  Lecture  I.  "  Tiie  Hero  as  Divinity,"  and  Lecture  IV.  "The 
Hero  as  I'riost. " 


HEBER'S  PLACE  IN  MISSIONARY  BIOGRAPHY  3 


gift  of  song,  he  crowned  in  the  last  three  by  his  statesman-like 
administration  of  the  vastest  of  all  Episcopal  dioceses,  and 
by  his  martyr-like  death. 


The  Seven  British  Founders  of  the  Church  in  India 


orn. 

Landed  in 
India. 

le  . 

— 

Charles  Grant 

1746 

1767 

1823 

77 

Presbyterian  nnd  then 

April  16 

Anglican  Layman 

William  Carey 

1761 

1793 

1834 

73 

Baptist 

August  17 

November  1 1 

June  9 

Henry  Martyn 

1781 

1806 

1812 

31 

Anglican  and  Martyr 

February  18 

April  22 

October  16 

Reginald  Heuer 

1783 

1823 

1826 

43 

Anglican  and  Martyr 

April  21 

October  10 

April  3 

John  Wilson 

1804 

1S28 

1875 

7' 

Presbyterian 

December  1 1 

February  15 

December  I 

Alexander  Duff 

1806 

1830 

1878 

72 

Presbyterian 

April  25 

May  27 

February  12 

Stephen  Hislop 

1817 

1844 

1863 

46 

Presbyterian  and  Martyr 

September  8 

December  13 

.September  4 

First  in  the  libra  ioro  is  the  Scottisli  Highlander  who 
was  born  in  the  hour  when  his  father  was  fighting  for  Prince 
Charles  on  the  dark  field  of  CuUoden.  Charles  Grant  links 
on  to  the  British  list  the  name  of  the  Prussian  apostle, 
Christian  Friedrich  Schwartz  (i  726-1 798),  who,  when  they 
met  at  Madras  in  1773,  kindled  in  the  Company's  young  civil 
servant  the  missionary  fire.  As  we  have  recorded  elsewhere, 
it  was  this  servant  of  the  East  India  Company,  at  the  most 
degenerate  period  of  its  marvellous  history,  who  wrote  what  is 
still  the  noblest  treatise  in  the  English  language  on  the  con- 
version of  the  Asiatic  subjects  of  Great  Britain ;  who  helped 
Carey  to  Serampore;  who  sent  out  Martyn  and  the  evangelical 
chaplains  through  Charles  Simeon ;  who  founded  old  Hailey- 
bury  College;  who  was  active  in  instituting  the  Church  Mission- 

'  Good  Words  for  September  iSgr,  with  copy  of  Rncburn's  portrait. 


BISHOP  HEBER 


ary  and  Bible  Societies ;  who  fought  for  the  freedom  of  the 
slave,  inspiring  Wilberforce  and  the  Clapham  men  ;  who  sent 
out  Daniel  Wilson  as  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  and  who  did  all  this 
and  more  as  chairman  and  member  of  the  Court  of  Directors 
and  Member  of  Parliament  for  Inverness-shire.  Charles 
Grant's  papers  have  yet  to  see  the  light. 

To  the  list  there  is  at  least  one  name  that  should  be  added 
besides  those  of  the  three  American  pioneers — Adoniram 
Judson,  the  Congregationalist  who  became  Baptist,  the  apostle 
of  Burma;  John  Scudder  (1793-1855),  Dutch  Reformed,  the 
apostle  of  Ceylon  and  Madras ;  and  John  Forman,  the 
Presbyterian  apostle  of  Lahore  and  the  Punjab  (died  1894). 
That  name  is  Robert  Caldwell,  Congregationalist,  student  of 
the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel's  missionary  in  Tinnevelli,  of  which  he  was  the 
first  bishop.  Of  him  we  still  await  an  adequate  biography. 
Of  Dr.  Valpy  French,  the  first  Bishop  of  Lahore,  a  worthy 
record  is  to  appear.  Along  with  all  these  there  should  be 
recorded  the  names  of  the  great  teachers  and  secretaries  who, 
often  painfully  but  always  loyally,  held  the  ropes  while  the  pit 
of  heathenism  was  being  opened  to  the  light  of  the  evangel, 
Thomas  Chalmers  and  John  Inglis,i  Andrew  Fuller  -  and  John 
Love,^  William  Brown  *  and  Henry  Venn.^ 

We  cannot  pass  to  Reginald  Heber  without  recalling  the 
great  and  good  Irish  bishop  whom  he  resembled,  the  mission- 
ary philosopher,  George  Berkeley.  Just  a  hundred  years 
before  Heber  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  Berkeley, 
according  to  Dean  Swift,  first  conceived  the  Proposal 
which  he  published  in  1725,  for  the  better  supplying  of 
churches  in  our  foreign  plantations,  and  for  converting  the 
savage  Americans  to  Christianity,  by  a  college  to  be  erected  in 

1  Minister  of  Old  Greyfriars,  Edinburgh,  and  father  of  the  late  Lord 
President  of  the  Court  of  Session.    See  Life  of  Duff,  p.  37. 

2  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Fuller,  by  J.  W. 
Morris  (1816). 

2  Letters  (Glasgow,  1848),  Sermons,  with  Addresses  to  the  People  of 
Otaheite  and  a  serious  Call  respecting  a  Mission  to  the  river  Indus  (Edin- 
burgh, 1846). 

Secretary  of  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  Author  of  History  of  Missions, 
in  3  vols.,  3rd  edition,  1854. 

The  Missionary  Secretariat  of  Henry  Venn,  B.D.,  Prebendary  of  St. 
Paul's,  by  the  Rev.  WiUiam  Knight,  M.A.,  1880. 


HEBER'S  PLACE  IN  MISSIONARY  BIOGRAPHY  5 


the  Summer  Islands,  otherwise  called  the  Isles  of  Bermuda. 
At  forty-four  years  of  age  this  modern  successor  of  Patrick 
and  Columba  sailed  for  Rhode  Island,  intending  to  purchase 
land  at  the  rising  emporium  of  Newport  as  an  investment  for 
his  missionary  college.  Betrayed  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  the 
philosophic  philanthropist  never  reached  the  Bermudas,  but 
made  over  to  Yale  College  at  New  Haven  his  lands  and  his 
library.  His  vision  of  America,  its  white  settlers  and  en- 
slaved negroes,  civilised  by  his  university,  has  been  realised 
through  the  same  divine  forces  which  he  would  have  wielded, 
so  that  colonisation  by  the  Reformed  Churches  and  Univer- 
sities has  become  the  most  powerful  and  extensively  suc- 
cessful of  all  the  secondary  methods  of  Christian  Missions. 
The  Proposal'^  thus  to  create  a  Fifth  Empire  in  the  West 
remains  none  the  less  a  historical  fact  that  it  forms  one  of  the 
most  exquisite  chapters  in  the  romance  of  history,  so  far  as 
that  is  concerned  with  the  beginnings  of  things  which  have 
had  mighty  results. 

In  the  English  Church,  after  a  dreary  century,  and  in  the 
spiritual  expansion  of  the  English-speaking  peoples,  the  first 
successors  of  Bishop  Berkeley  were  Henry  Martyn  and  Bishop 
Heber. 

1  The  Works  of  George  Berkeley,  D.D.,  formerly  Bishop  of  Cloyne.  See 
vol.  iii.,  pages  213-231.  Also  the  Life  and  Lellcrs  in  which  Professor  Camp- 
bell Frascr  does  justice  to  Berkeley  as  a  missionary. 


CHAPTER  II 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 
1 783. 1 80s 

The  county  palatine  of  Cheshire  was  the  scene  of  the  birth 
and  the  boyhood  of  the  two  missionary  bishops,  Reginald 
Heber  and  George  Cotton.  The  greatest  of  the  Metropolitans 
of  India,  these  bishops,  not  of  one  Church  only  but  of  all 
good  men,  suddenly  laid  down  their  life,  from  perils  of  waters, 
in  the  mid-time  of  their  days,  while  busied  in  ministering  to 
the  Asiatic  and  the  British  Christians  of  their  diocese.  Camden 
describes  Cheshire,  with  which  the  neighbouring  Salop  must 
be  joined,  as  cxiinia  nobilitatis  altrix,  and  Drayton  sings  of  it 
as  "  chief  of  men,"  those  "  mightiest  men  of  bone  in  her  full 
bosom  bred,"  referring  to  the  long  roll  of  heroes  who  served 
their  country  well  all  through  the  times  of  the  Plantagenets 
and  the  Stuarts.  Of  these,  not  the  least  were  the  men  who 
won  and  then  civilised  our  Empire  of  India — Clive  and 
Combermere,  Sydney  Cotton  and  Edwardes,  Reginald  Heber 
and  George  Cotton,  to  say  nothing  of  Richard  Baxter  and 
Matthew  Henry. 

Malpas  parish,  in  which  Heber  was  born,  looks  from  the 
outer  edge  of  the  basin  of  the  winding  Dee  across  to  Wrex- 
ham,^  in  Wales,  where  he  wrote  his  missionary  hymn.  Stretch- 
ing south  from  the  city  of  Chester,  the  picturesque  high  land  or 
spur  of  the  Peckforton  hills  sweeps  down  into  the  rich  pastures 

'  Dean  Hovvson,  in  his  charming  quarto  on  The  River  Dee,  its  Aspects  and 
History  (1875),  gives  a  picture  of  Wre.\ham  Church. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


7 


of  Shropshire,  where,  as  Rector  of  Hodnet,  Heber  spent  more 
than  fifteen  years  of  his  busy  life  before  leaving  for  Calcutta. 
Malpas,  commanding  the  Roman  camp  at  Chester  and  the 
marciies  of  ^Vales,  represents  the  bad  step  {mains  passus)  or 
difficulty  of  the  pass  at  that  northern  point.  The  Romans 
crowned  the  height — upwards  of  four  hundred  feet — with  a 
fortress,  succeeded  by  the  castle  of  the  first  Norman  earl,  of 
which  the  present  church  formed  the  chapel,  a  wall  enclosing 
the  whole.  Roman  "  villa "  and  Norman  castle  are  now 
represented  by  the  circular  mound  on  the  north  side  of  the 
church.  From  its  ancient  tower  the  keen  eye  may  take  in  the 
beautiful  English  scene,  from  the  ships  in  the  Mersey  to  the 
domed  Wrekin,  and  west  to  the  vale  of  Llangollen. 

Here,  in  1770,  there  came  as  Rector,  Reginald  Heber, 
M.A.,  Fellow  of  Brasenose  College,  O-xford.  Hayber,  or 
Hayberg,  from  which  the  name  is  taken,  is  a  hill  in  the  Craven 
division  of  Yorkshire,  on  the  family  estate  of  Marton.^  The 
elder  brother  -  purchased  for  the  young  clergyman  the  living  of 
Chelsea,  and  died,  leaving  a  widow.  As  his  heir  male,  the 
clergyman  succeeded  him  in  the  old  Vernon  estate,  Hodnet,^ 
Shropshire,  and  soon  exchanged  the  Chelsea  living  for  that  of 
the  higher  co-rectory  of  Malpas  —  within  riding  distance  of 
Hodnet.  Tradition  still  tells  how  he  was  wont  to  drive  in  a 
coach  and  four  across  the  then  comparatively  roadless  country 
from  Malpas  to  hold  service  at  Hodnet,  where  the  old  hall 
and  the  adjoining  rectory  were  low  and  unhealthy.  In  Geneva 
gown  and  bands,  as  was  customary,  in  the  wig  of  the  period, 
and  with  a  gold-headed  staff,  the  future  Bishop's  father  was  a 

1  Whitaker  states,  in  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Deanery  of  Craven, 
in  the  County  of  Yoric  (3rd  cd. ,  1878),  that  upon  the  ruins  of  tlie  Marions 
arose  the  family  of  Heber,  or  more  properly,  as  it  is  vulgarly  pronounced, 
Hayber  ;  so  called,  undoubtedly,  from  a  place  in  the  neighbourhood  named 
Ilaybcr  or  Hayberg — the  hill  surrounded  by  a  haia  or  foss  and  paling  such  as 
enclosed  the  ancient  forests.  In  i5oi  it  was  granted  by  Lancelot  Marton  to 
Thomas  Heber,  Esq.,  ancestor  of  Richard  and  Reginald.  Thomas  Heber 
added  to  it,  and  died  very  wealthy  in  1548.  The  volume  contains  a  fine 
picture  of  West  Marton  Hall,  residence  of  the  Heber  family,  embosomed  in 
wood.  "  No  house  has  been  connected  with  greater  virtues  or  equal  talents," 
writes  Dr.  T.  D,  Whitaker. 

^  The  Yorkshire  Hebers  go  back  to  1461,  when  Thomas  Heber  was  witness 
to  a  deed.  His  brother  Oswald  was  slain  at  the  Battle  of  Wakefield,  fighting 
for  the  Duke  of  York. 

3  See  Appendi.x. 


8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


stately  squire  and  zealous  parish  priest.  He  wrote  verses, 
which  others  published,  such  as  an  "  Elegy  among  the  Tombs  at 
AV'estminster  Abbey,"  ^  and  "  To  George  III.  on  his  Accession."  2 
He  lived  to  his  seventy-sixth  year,  just  long  enough  to  hear 
his  son  recite  Palestine  in  the  theatre  of  Oxford  University. 

Reginald  Heber,  the  father,  was  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  died  early,  leaving  an  infant  son,  Richard  Heber,  who 
became  the  greatest  book  collector  of  his  own  or  any  other 
day,  the  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  M.P.  for  the  University 
of  Oxford.  He  was  the  "  Atticus  "  of  Dibdin's  Bibliomania. 
His  taste  seriously  injured  the  family  estate  of  Hodnet  when 
he  succeeded  to  it.  A  saying  of  his  was  that  every  good 
library  should  have  three  copies  of  a  book — one  to  read,  one 
to  lend,  and  one  on  the  shelf.  On  his  death  the  Bibliotheca 
Jleberiana,  collected  from  his  Hodnet  and  London  houses  and 
his  three  years'  residence  in  Holland,  appeared  in  1836-1837 
in  thirteen  parts,  and  216  days  were  occupied  in  selling  the 
volumes  by  auction.  The  1 50,000  volumes  realised  ^{^65,000. 
Alibone,  the  American,  pronounces  Richard  Heber  "  the  most 
voracious  "  Iiclluo  librorum  in  the  annals  of  bibliography.  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine  for  January  1834  tells  how,  on  hearing 
of  a  curious  book,  he  would  travel  by  mail  coach  three,  four, 
or  five  hundred  miles  to  obtain  it,  fearful  to  entrust  his  com- 
mission to  a  letter.  In  his  house  at  Pimlico,  where  he  died, 
every  wall,  chair,  table,  and  passage  was  filled  with  books  from 
top  to  bottom.  So  also  his  house  in  York  Street,  and  that  in 
the  Oxford  High  Street,  besides  collections  in  Paris,  z\ntwerp, 
and  Brussels.  He  had  what  John  Hill  Burton,  in  that 
delightful  volume  The  Book  Hiinter,  calls  the  most  virulent 
form  of  book-mania — that  of  duplicating.  But  this  was  the 
keynote  to  his  popularity,  for  "  though,  like  ^^'olsey,  he  was 
unsatisfied  in  getting,  yet,  like  him,  in  bestowing  he  was 
most  princely.  Many  scholars  and  authors  obtained  the  raw 
materials  for  their  labours  from  his  transcendent  stores.  These, 
indeed,  might  be  said  less  to  be  personal  to  himself  than  to  be 
a  feature  in  the  literary  geography  of  Europe." 

On  the  30th  July  1782  Richard's  father  married  Mary 
Allanson,  eldest  daughter  of  the  Rector  of  Wath,  in  Yorkshire, 
and  on  the  21st  April  1783  Reginald  Heber  was  born  to 

1  In  Pearch's  Collection.  -  Among  the  O.xford  Poems. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


9 


them.  He  was  followed  by  Thomas  Cuthbert  Heber,  after- 
wards Fellow  of  Brasenose,  and  incumbent  of  the  Marton  living, 
who  died  in  1 8 1 6,  and  by  the  only  sister,  Mary,  who  survived 
to  a  good  old  age,  and  restored  Hodnet  Church  as  it  now  is. 
The  mother  designed  and  the  father  built  on  a  new  site,  at 
a  cost  of  1 500  in  those  days,  the  present  Rectory  of  Malpas, 
in  which  Reginald  was  born.  From  the  spacious  window  of 
the  room,  around  which  the  present  Rector  has  inscribed  the 
fact,  there  is  a  charming  view  of  hill  and  dale  and  river,  with 
vistas  of  Wrexham  and  the  Welsh  hills. 

The  church  in  which  Reginald  Heber,  as  a  child,  received 
gracious  influences  bears  the  name  of  St.  Oswald,  whom  we 
may  most  accurately  describe  as  the  missionary  king.  It 
commands  a  district,  almost  every  acre  of  which  suggests 
memories  of  the  royal  convert  of  lona,  the  friend  of  Aidan, 
and,  in  his  too  short  reign,  the  evangeliser  of  Northumbria. 
King  Oswald  was  the  martyr  whose  head  the  mediaeval  sculptors 
delighted  to  represent  as  held  in  the  hand  of  St.  Cuthbert  next 
to  his  heart.^  The  neighbouring  town  of  AVhitchurch,  where 
young  Heber  first  went  to  school,  according  to  one  tradition, 
stands  near  the  field  of  Maserfelth,  where  Oswald  fell  by 
treachery,  calling  on  God  for  mercy  to  the  soldiers  whom  he 
led.  In  the  boy's  time  the  building  was  inferior  to  what  it  has 
been  since  its  restoration  in  1842,  and  especially  since  the 
dedication  of  the  rich  east  window  in  memory  of  the  poet  and 
missionary  bishop  in  1887.  But  it  has  all  along  been  a  fine 
example  of  the  enriched  Gothic  of  the  later  days  of  Henry 
VII.,  with  sepulchral  monuments  of  the  Cholmondeleys  and 
Breretons  or  Egertons  in  the  chancels  bearing  their  names. 

From  the  first  dawning  of  intelligence,  and  all  through  the 
forty-three  years  of  his  life  as  child,  youth,  and  man,  as 
student,  pastor,  and  bishop,  Reginald  Heber  showed  the  same 
"  gracious "  character  and  mental  activity,  redeemed  from 
priggishness  and  vanity  by  a  humble  fear  of  God  and  a  joyous 
delight  in  whatsoever  things  are  lovely  and  of  good  report. 
He  was  fortunate  in  his  religious  training  at  a  time  when  the 
evangelical  revival  had  hardly  begun  to  influence  the  Church 
of  England,  and  the  century  of  missionary  and  philanthropic 

1  Two  of  their  works  are  beautifully  pictured  in  the  new  edition  of 
Ornierod's  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  614. 


lO 


BISHOP  HEBER 


enthusiasm  was  only  at  hand.  In  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
Church's  history,  the  hour  before  the  day  that  in  1792 
ushered  in  "  the  era  of  universal  benevolence "  towards  the 
heathen  and  the  slave,  the  ignorant  and  the  oppressed,  the 
boy  Heber  spent  the  first  fourteen  years  of  his  life  under  the 
hourly  influence  of  parents  and  teachers  whose  wisdom  and 
culture  were  directed  by  the  love  of  God.  His  great  con- 
temporaries, William  Carey  and  Henry  Martyn,  each  of  whom 
afterwards  influenced  him,  were  called  from  comparative 
obscurity  and  poverty  to  work  for  the  Master  in  the  world, 
while  he  was  born  in  the  luxury  of  the  "lord  of  the  manors 
and  patron  of  the  rectories  of  Marton  and  of  Hodnet."  In 
1782  Carey,  the  parish  clerk's  and  weaver's  son,  had  left  the 
Church  of  England  for  the  despised  Baptists,  and  was  about 
to  be  immersed  by  Ryland  in  the  river  Nen  as  "a  poor 
journeyman  shoemaker."  Henry  Martyn  was  only  fourteen 
months  older  than  Heber,  and  struggled  all  his  student  life 
against  poverty,  till  an  East  India  chaplaincy  opened  his  way 
to  the  Mohammedans  of  India,  Persia,  and  Arabia.  No 
university  knew  Carey ;  Cambridge  learned  in  time  to  glory 
in  Martyn ;  Oxford  sent  forth  Heber,  its  most  popular  and 
successful  son,  to  be  the  missionary  metropolitan  of  Asia, 
Africa,  and  Australasia.  The  same  grace  of  God  which 
bringeth  salvation  appeared  to  the  three  youths  in  the  same 
dark  period  of  the  Church,  and  sent  them  far  hence  to 
preach  to  the  nations,  using  alike  poverty  and  wealth,  ignor- 
ance and  wisdom,  obscurity  and  reputation,  and  uniting  all 
three  in  a  brotherly  catholicity  of  spirit  and  aim.  Such  men 
were  to  the  modern  missionary  century  what  in  the  apostolic 
group  Paul  and  Peter  and  John  were  to  the  first. 

Reginald  Heber  was  called  from  the  womb  to  the  service 
in  which  he  gave  up  his  life.  Long  after,  when  discussing 
John  Wesley's  account  of  the  new  light  received  from  the 
Moravian  Boehler,  that  faith  must  be  "instantaneous,"  Heber 
wrote  ^  of  conversion  thus  :  "  With  the  term  instantaneous  we 
have  no  disposition  to  quarrel.  A  man  must  begin  to  believe 
at  some  time  or  other ;  and  if  the  truths  of  Christianity  are 
first  impressed  on  his  heart  after  he  arrives  at  years  of  dis- 
cretion, he  may,  beyond  a  doubt,  remember  in  certain  cases 
1  The  Quarterly  Review  for  October  1820,  vol.  .x-xiv.  p.  22. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


the  very  day  and  hour  in  which  he  first  received  conviction. 
.  .  .  The  only  danger  is  lest,  by  making  that  circumstance  a 
necessary  mark  of  conversion  which  was,  in  fact,  only  an  inci- 
dental accompaniment  of  it,  we  should  presumptuously  con- 
fine the  grace  of  God  to  a  single  mode  of  operation,  and 
exclude  from  our  scheme  that  which  is,  probably,  the  most 
common  of  all  His  dispensations,  wherever  the  seed  sown  at 
baptism  grows  up  thenceforth,  through  the  means  of  educa- 
tion and  example,  and  by  the  continually  renewed  though 
silent  influences  of  that  Spirit  by  whom  we  were  then  first 
sanctified." 

Reginald's  mother,  who  long  survived  him,  pondered,  like 
another,  the  things  of  his  precocious  childhood.  Twice  in  the 
first  six  years  of  his  life  disease  was  nearly  fatal  to  him,  but 
his  trust  in  God  and  careful  obedience  brought  him  through. 
When  bled  by  the  apothecary,  after  the  fashion  of  those  days, 
he  called  out,  "  Do  not  hold  me  ;  I  won't  stir."  When  driv- 
ing in  the  Yorkshire  hills  during  a  dangerous  storm,  and 
sitting  on  his  mother's  knee,  he  said,  "Do  not  be  afraid,  God 
will  take  care  of  us,"  words  which  she  recalled  long  after 
when  the  Bishop  was  on  his  way  to  Calcutta,  and,  above  all, 
when  the  news  came  of  his  sudden  death.  From  the  first 
his  father  encouraged  him  to  read  the  whole  Bible,  and  not 
any  summary  or  extracts,  so  that  when  he  was  seven  years 
old  he  had  become  familiar  with  the  words  and  saturated  with 
the  style  of  the  English  version,  to  a  degree  which  coloured  his 
spiritual  and  literary  life.  The  habit  of  frequent  prayer,  and 
the  delight  in  praying  for  himself  and  others,  which  marked 
his  whole  career,  began  in  the  earliest  years  in  the  stillness  of 
his  own  room.  When  he  was  about  fourteen  years  of  age  his 
mother  missed  her  manual  of  preparation  for  Holy  Com- 
munion. Reginald  brought  it  back  to  her  with  the  assurance 
that  he  had,  during  the  previous  three  weeks  of  his  school 
holidays,  mastered  its  contents,  and  with  the  earnest  request 
that  he  might  thenceforth  be  with  her  at  the  celebration  of 
the  sacrament. 

The  boy's  memory  retained,  and  his  imagination  lighted 
up  with  unusual  vividness  what  he  learned  from  omnivorous 
reading  and  a  genial  habit  of  conversation.  If  he  failed  to 
give  the  date  of  any  event  he  could  always  detail  the  circum- 


12 


BISHOP  HEBER 


stances,  the  contemporaneous  facts,  and  the  historical  sur- 
roundings. He  had  the  rare  instinct  of  drawing  out  the  least 
educated  on  the  one  subject  which  they  knew  best,  and  he 
remarked  in  later  life  that  he  never  met  with  any  one  from 
whom  he  could  not  acquire  some  information  worth  having. 
At  school  and  college,  as  in  his  parish  and  vast  diocese  after- 
wards, this  sympathy  and  intellectual  brotherhood  with  every 
man,  however  humble,  made  him  greatly  beloved  and  most 
efficient  in  securing  the  high  ends  of  his  calling.  His  wonder- 
ful tact  was  the  result  of  a  rare  unselfishness  and  genuine 
desire  to  serve,  not,  as  with  most  people,  of  calculation  and 
care. 

His  reading  was  guided  by  his  father,  and  still  more  by 
his  stepbrother  Richard,  who  used  to  say  of  him  that  he  did 
more  than  read  books — he  devoured  them.  His  father  taught 
him  Latin  and  Greek,  and  his  first  literary  production  was  a 
translation  of  the  fables  of  Phaedrus  into  verse,  made  when 
he  was  only  seven.  The  other  co-rectory  in  Malpas,  recently 
amalgamated  with  the  adjoining  livings,  was  held  by  Dr. 
Townson,  who  gave  the  boy  the  run  of  his  considerable 
library,  and  further  gratified  his  literary  craving.  When 
eight  he  was  sent  to  the  neighbouring  grammar  school  of 
Whitchurch,  of  which  Dr.  Kent  was  then  master.  At  fifteen 
he  left  home,  not  for  one  of  the  great  public  schools  of 
England,  but  for  Neasdon,  then  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
London,  where  the  clergyman,  Mr.  Bristow,  trained  him  along 
with  a  few  others.  There  he  became  the  companion  of  John 
Thornton,  son  of  the  M.P.  for  Surrey,  a  friendship  which  was 
perpetuated  by  the  marriage  of  their  children. ^  In  Thornton 
he  found  one  of  like  mind,  and  for  five  years  he  gave  a  high 
tone  to  the  school.  Reverence  and  purity  marked  all  his 
intercourse,  and  he  proved  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  weaker 
boys,  who  were  encouraged  by  him  to  shun  vice  and  profanity. 
His  natural  unselfishness  and  apparent  absorption  in  intel- 
lectual pleasures  were  on  one  occasion  presumed  on  by  the 
tyrant  of  the  school.  Determined  to  resist  him,  though  well 
aware  he  could  not  defeat  his  superior  strength,  Heber,  as 

^  Rev.  John  Thornton,  the  present  Vicar  of  Ewell,  Surrey,  is  a  grandson  of 
Bishop  Heber,  whose  MS.  sermons  and  private  MS.  devotions  are  in  his 
possession. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


13 


described  by  Thornton,  fought  him  manfully,  for  the  purpose, 
as  he  said,  of  teaching  his  opponent  that  tyranny  should  not 
be  practised  on  him  with  impunity.  While  mastering  the 
higher  classics  he  made  great  strides  in  literary  composition. 
His  prose  essays  showed  a  maturity  of  thought  and  an  extent 
of  knowledge  beyond  his  years.  His  verse  was  especially 
remarkable.  In  the  spirited  lines  of  The  Prophecy  of  hhmael, 
which  the  boy  wrote  as  a  class  exercise  on  the  Battle  of  the 
Nile  after  Buonaparte's  invasion  of  Egypt,  we  see  the  promise 
which  he  was  soon  so  brilliantly  to  redeem  at  Oxford,  in 
Palesline.  Now  it  was  that  he  learned  to  know  the  Poet's 
poet  Spenser.  The  Faerie  Queen  was  always  in  his  pocket, 
and  the  companion  of  his  solitary  walks,  while  his  fellows  were 
at  their  sports.  All  through  his  life  he  seldom  travelled  with- 
out a  volume  of  the  same  copy  to  read  on  the  road.i  That 
and  his  Bible  formed  his  frequent  resort.  His  mental  growth 
may  be  traced  in  the  letters  to  his  friend  Thornton,  who  had 
meanwhile  passed  on  to  Cambridge,  and  was  delighting  in  the 
mathematical  studies  and  exact  sciences  which  Heber  disliked. 
In  November  1799  he  wrote: — 

"  In  Greek  I  go  on  in  the  old  train,  being  now  deep 
engaged  in  Longinus,  Prometheus  Vinct.,  and  the  Epistles  with 
Locke's  commentary  ;  besides  which,  I  read  the  Essay  on  the 
Human  Understandiiig  for  two  hours  every  evening  after  1  ha\'e 
finished  my  exercise.  Locke,  you  know,  I  used  to  think  very 
stupid  ;  but  I  have  now  quite  altered  my  opinion." 

When  he  was  still  seventeen,  the  future  rector  and  bishop 
thus  wisely  touched  a  question  which  nearly  a  century's  delay 
has  made  more  difficult  than  ever. 

"  Neasdon,  24//;  June  iSoo. 
"...  I  fully  agree  with  you  respecting  the  stipends  of  the 
clergy.  Were  Queen  Anne's  bounty  better  regulated,  and  were  it 
ordered  that  every  clergyman  of  above  £,^oo  a  year  should,  bona 
fide,  pay  the  tenth  of  his  benefices  to  that,  or  some  other  similar 
institution,  and  so  on  in  such  an  ascending  scale  to  the  largest 
preferments,  as  might  be  thought  right  and  equal,  much  of  this 
evil,  and  all  its  attending  mischiefs  of  non-residence,  contempt  of 


'  Life,  by  his  Widow,  1830  (Joliii  Murray). 


BISHOP  HEBER 


the  ministry,  etc.,  might,  I  think,  without  inconvenience,  be  pre- 
vented. This  it  is  thought  was  the  intention  of  Queen  Anne  ;  but 
the  death  of  that  excellent  woman  (for  I  am  tory  enough  to  think 
very  highly  of  her),  and  the  unfortunate  circumstances  which 
followed,  threw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  Church  which  I  fear 
there  is  no  probability  of  its  being  able  to  get  over.  .  .  . 

"  I,  however,  am  rather  apt  to  regard  the  interference  of  tem- 
poral authority  in  these  matters  with  a  jealous  eye.  The  rulers  of 
this  world  have  very  seldom  shown  themselves  friendly  to  the  real 
interests  of  the  Church.  If  we  consider  the  conduct  of  the 
government  in  the  times  of  the  Reformation,  and  indeed  ever 
since,  we  shall  always  find  it  has  been  more  friendly  to  its  own 
avaricious  and  ambitious  projects,  than  to  consult  what  is  just 
and  pious.  .  .  . 

"  I  think  you  are  very  lucky  in  your  acquaintance  with  Lord 
Teignmouth  ;  they  are  such  men,  as  you  have  described  him,  that 
are  to  keep  us  from  sinking.  .  .  . 

"  As  for  those  poor  wretches  whom  the  oratory  of  men  seduces 
into  schism,  I  wish  they  understood  the  excellent  distinction  you 
made  between  prayer  and  preaching  when  I  was  last  in  your  com- 
pany ;  which  sentiment  of  yours  corresponded  entirely  in  substance, 
and  almost  in  words,  with  a  beautiful  passage  in  the  fifth  book  of 
my  favourite  Hooker's  Ecd.  Pol.'" 

"  HoDNET  Hall,  i^th  August  1800. 
"...  I  am  sorry  that  you  are  edging  still  farther  off  from  my 
haunts  ;  but,  however,  what  are  fifty  or  one  hundred  miles  to  two 
lads  with  affectionate  hearts  and  hardy  outsides  ?  Cambridge  and 
Oxford  have,  as  I  believe,  a  mail  running  between  them,  so  that 
at  College  we  are  only  a  few  hours'  dri\  e  asunder.  .  .  .  Vale  Royal 
Abbey,  or  as  it  is  generally  or  at  least  frequently  called,  the  Vale 
Royal  of  Cheshire,  is  the  seat  of  our  relation,  Mr.  Cholmondeley, 
which  name  not  being  over  classical,  I  was  obliged  to  speak 
clliptically.  I  have  been  a  little  interrupted  in  my  Greek  by  two 
things  ;  first,  the  examining  of  a  large  chest  full  of  old  family 
writings,  which  I  have  almost  got  through  ;  and,  secondly,  I  have 
commenced  a  diligent  reperusal  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  I 
trust  I  shall,  Deo  Juvanle,  finish  before  I  go  to  Oxford." 

"HoDNET  Hall,  igth  September  1800. 
"  You  ask  me  what  is  my  plan  of  operations  in  my  studies. 
I  am  afraid  that  I  have  of  late  a  good  deal  relaxed  from  my 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


15 


former  diligence,  and  my  advances  in  Homer  and  algebra  are  not 
equal  to  what  I  hoped.  I  have,  however,  not  totally  neglected 
these  ;  and  I  have  got  on  fast  in  Guicciardini  and  Machiavel,  and 
at  my  spare  hours  have  read  one  half  of  Knolles'  History  of  the 
Turks,  which  you  know  Johnson  highly,  and  I  think  deservedly, 
commends.  I,  for  my  own  part,  have  never  met  with  a  greater 
mass  of  information,  or,  considering  the  time  when  it  was  written, 
a  more  pleasing  style.  If  ever  you  should  meet  with  it,  if  you  are 
not  daunted  with  a  thick  folio,  closely  printed,  you  can  scarcely 
find  a  more  agreeable  companion  for  those  hours  in  which  you 
are  not  employed  in  other  ways.  You  will  laugh  at  me  for  study- 
ing Machiavel,  but  I  read  him  principally  for  the  sake  of  his 
style  ;  though  I  frankly  own  I  think  much  better  of  him  than  the 
generality  of  the  world  (who  probably  have  never  read  him)  pro- 
fess to  do." 

"  Malpas,  October  1800. 

"...  I  have  been  a  much  gayer  fellow  than  usual  of  late, 
having  been  at  a  race,  and  also  at,  what  I  never  saw  before,  a 
mascjuerade.  This  catalogue  of  jaunts,  though  not  much  perhaps 
for  a  girl,  has  been  a  great  deal  for  me,  and  has  indeed  quite 
satisfied  me.  If  these  things  are  so  little  interesting  even  while 
they  have  the  charm  of  novelty,  I  think  I  shall  care  very  little 
indeed  for  them  when  that  is  worn  off.  The  masquerade  was  not 
so  entertaining  as  I  expected.  There  certainly  were  some  char- 
acters well  kept  up,  but  the  most  part  behaved  exactly  as  if  they 
were  barefaced.  It  was  given  by  Sir  W.  Williams  Wynn,  and 
though  certainly  much  inferior  in  splendour  to  Mr.  Cholmondeley's 
ball,  was  very  well  conducted.  Sat  de  ntigis,  ad  seria  reverto. 
My  studies  go  on  as  usual.  Machiavel  I  rather  admire  more 
than  at  first.  My  Greek  studies  will  be  soon,  I  fear,  gravelled, 
if  I  continue  at  home.  My  brother  particularly  recommends  me 
to  attend  the  public  lectures  on  astronomy  and  mathematics  at 
Oxford,  as  he  says  they  are  at  present  very  clever. 

"  We  have  some  tumults  in  this  neighbourhood.  In  Stafford- 
shire the  mob  proceeded  to  domiciliary  visits  with  halters  and 
agreements,  forcing  the  farmers  to  the  alternative.  All  is,  how- 
ever, cjuiet  at  present." 

Next  to  reading,  the  recreation  which  most  delighted 
Reginald  Heber  was  drawing — architectural  and  landscape. 
We  find  him  writing  to  his  friend  Thornton  on  his  leaving 
school 


i6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  I  send  you  a  sketch  of  a  building  which  I  passed  coming 
from  the  north,  which  will  interest  you  as  much  as  it  did  me  ;  I 
could  almost  have  pulled  off  my  hat  as  we  drove  by.  It  is  Sir 
Isaac  Newton's  house  as  it  appears  from  the  north  road.  Though 
I  have  heard  it  taken  notice  of,  I  never  saw  any  print  or  drawing 
of  it." 

The  art  was  a  pleasure  to  himself,  and  a  delight  to  his 
correspondents  during  his  travels  in  Russia  and  in  India. 
The  water-colour  sketches  which  accompanied  not  a  few  of  his 
letters,  illustrating  his  pen-and-ink  descriptions,  were  greatly 
prized.  His  keen  power  and  habit  of  observation  were  shown 
in  his  attention  to  natural  history,  and  his  open-air  studies  of 
insects,  birds,  and  beasts. 

When  the  youth  went  to  Oxford  in  his  eighteenth  year  he 
personally  knew  no  one  in  the  University.  But  he  was 
known  to  several.  Brasenose  College,  in  which  he  was 
entered  in  November  1800,  was  emphatically  the  college  of 
Cheshire  men.  His  brother  Richard  was  a  Fellow,  and 
hastened  home  from  a  book-hunting  tour  on  the  Continent  to 
introduce  him.  His  father  had  been  a  Fellow,  and  both 
parents  went  up  with  him.  The  Bishop  of  Chester,  Dr. 
William  Cleaver,  was  Principal  of  the  College,  and  the  senior 
Proctor  and  several  of  the  Fellows  were  known  to  him.  Mr. 
Hugh  Cholmondeley,  who  became  Dean  of  Chester,  took  him 
by  the  hand  until  his  brother's  arrival.  The  Rev.  T.  S. 
Smyth,  afterwards  Rector  of  St.  Austell,  Cornwall,  became  his 
tutor.  After  temporary  accommodation  in  what  he  called  a 
"garret,"  he  secured  the  rooms  ever  since  identified  with  his 
name  in  No.  7,  on  the  right-hand  corner  after  entering  the  quad- 
rangle, one  stair  up.  The  windows  overlook  Brasenose  Lane 
and  the  famous  chestnut-tree  in  the  garden  of  Exeter  College. 
The  chapel  and  hall  are  in  the  same  condition  as  then ;  the 
library  has  newer  fittings  and  a  list  of  all  the  works  of  the 
Bishop,  whom  the  College  reckons  among  its  famous  sons, 
with  Foxe  and  Burton,  Milman  and  F.  W.  Robertson.  On 
the  one  side  he  commanded  the  dome  of  the  Bodleian,  on 
the  other  he  was  close  to  All  Souls,  of  which  he  was  soon  to 
become  an  honoured  Fellow.  After  three  months'  experience 
of  college  life  and  study  he  thus  wrote  to  his  Cambridge 
friend,  Thornton  : — 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


17 


"Gxi-'OKD,  l^lh  Jaituaty  1801. 

"...  I  write  under  the  bondage  of  a  very  severe  cold,  which 
I  caught  by  getting  out  of  bed  at  four  in  the  morning,  to  see  the 
celebration  of  the  famous  All  Souls  mallard  feast.  All  Souls  is 
on  the  opposite  side  of  RatclifYe  Square  to  Brazen  Nose,  so  that 
their  battlements  arc  in  some  degree  commanded  by  my  garret. 
I  had  thus  a  full  view  of  the  Lord  Mallard  and  about  forty 
fellows,  in  a  kind  of  procession  on  the  library  roof,  with  immense 
lighted  torches,  which  had  a  singular  effect.  I  know  not  if  their 
orgies  were  overlooked  by  any  uninitiated  eyes  except  my  own  ; 
but  I  anr  sure  that  all  who  had  the  gift  of  hearing,  within  half  a  mile, 
must  have  been  awakened  by  the  manner  in  which  they  thundered 
their  chorus,  '  O  by  the  blood  of  King  Edward.'  I  know  not 
whether  you  have  any  similar  strange  customs  in  Cambridge,  so 
that,  perhaps,  such  ceremonies  as  the  All  Souls  mallard,  the 
Queen's  boar's  head,  etc.,  will  strike  you  as  more  absurd  than  they 
do  an  Oxford  man  ;  but  I  own  I  am  of  opinion  that  these  remnants 
of  Golhicism  tend  very  much  to  keep  us  in  a  sound  consistent 
track  ;  and  that  one  cause  of  the  declension  of  the  foreign  uni- 
versities was  their  compliance,  in  such  points  as  these,  with  the 
variation  of  manners. 

"  I  have  got  into  a  habit  of  tolerably  early  rising,  which  I 
intend  to  adhere  to  ;  the  plan  is  that  another  man,  who  has  been 
my  companion  in  the  course  of  mathematics  which  I  have  gone 
through,  has  agreed  to  read  with  me  every  morning  from  six  till 
chapel,  by  which  scheme  we  gain  two  hours  of  the  best  part  of 
the  whole  day.  This  system  must,  however,  be  altered  when 
chapel  begins  at  six,  which  it  does  in  summer.  I  do  not  find 
Euclid  de  novo  so  irksome  as  your  friend  used  to  think.  Though 
mathematics  will  never  be  the  great  rallying-point  of  my  studies, 
I  should  be  very  sorry  to  be  ignorant  of  them,  and  that  philosophy 
which  depends  on  them.  My  class-fellow  is  agreeable  and 
remarkably  clever  ;  though  only  sixteen,  his  acquirenrents  and 
understanding  are  inferior  to  few  in  the  college.  He  is  at  present 
a  kind  of  tutor  to  a  man  at  least  five  years  his  senior.  Some 
traits  in  his  manner  and  character  have,  I  sometimes  fancy,  an 
imperfect  resemblance  to  you  ;  and,  while  they  make  me  still 
fonder  of  him,  serve  to  put  me  in  mind  of  the  only  cause  I  have 
to  regret  that  there  are  two  separate  universities  in  England." 

The  first  term  was  not  ended  before  Heber's  classical 
scholarship  and  literary  gifts  became  known,  and  the  generous 
c 


8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


bearing  and  clever  talk  of  the  youth  made  him  only  too 
popular.  The  Principal  had,  at  the  first,  cautioned  him  against 
too  numerous  an  acquaintance,  and  he  had  said,  "  It  is  a 
thing  I  certainly  would  not  court."  But  he  was  none  the  less 
sought  after,  at  a  time  when  his  own  college  was  unusually 
full.  He  was  fortunate  in  the  friendship  of  fellow-commoners, 
some  of  whom  became  famous  in  their  time,  such  as  Sir 
Charles  Watkin  Williams  Wynn,  afterwards  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control ;  Sir  Charles  Grey,  Chief-Justice,  Calcutta ; 
Sir  Edward  A\'est,  Chief-Justice,  Bombay ;  and  Dean  Milman. 
Sir  Charles  Grey  afterwards  declared  that  he  was  "  beyond  all 
(lucstion  or  comparison  the  most  distinguished  student  of  his 
time.  The  name  of  Reginald  Heber  was  in  every  mouth  ;  his 
society  was  courted  by  young  and  old ;  he  lived  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  favour,  admiration,  and  regard  from  which  I  have 
never  known  any  one  but  himself  who  would  not  have  derived, 
and  for  life,  an  unsalutary  influence." 

Aware  of  his  deficiency  in  mathematics,  Heber  remained 
in  Oxford  during  the  long  vacation  iSoi,  and  tried  to  tempt 
John  Thornton  to  visit  him. 

"  I  have  fagged  pretty  hard  since  I  have  been  here,  on  a  per- 
fectly different  plan,  however,  from  my  Neasdon  studies.  I  was 
\cry  closely  engaged  last  week  with  a  copy  of  verses,  as  you  will 
believe,  when  I  tell  you  that  I  literally  had  no  time  to  shave,  inso- 
much that  my  beard  was  as  long  and  hoary  as  that  of  his  majesty 
the  erl  king.  I  succeeded  tolerably  well  in  my  \  erscs,  and  had  to 
read  them  in  hall  ;  the  most  ner\-ous  ceremony  I  ever  went  through. 

"  I  agree  with  you  on  the  subject  of  that  fabled  academical 
leisure.  We  are,  at  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  in  the  economy  of 
time,  perfect  Cartesians  ;  we  admit  of  no  vacuum.  I  have  been, 
through  my  Cheshire  connections  and  the  long  residence  of  my 
brother,  introduced  to  a  great  many  people  ;  and  this  has,  of 
course,  produced  very  numerous  parties,  but,  I  assure  you,  I  shall 
preserve  my  character  for  sobriety  :  no  man  is  obliged  to  drink 
more  than  he  pleases,  nor  have  I  seen  any  of  that  spirit  of  playing 
tricks  on  freshmen  which  we  are  told  was  usual  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago  at  the  universities. 

"  '  Vale — si  possis,  veni.' 

"You  seem  not  much  to  like  the  concerts  at  Cambridge.  I 
very  much  approve  of  ours  here,  both  as  it  is  a  rational  scholar- 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


19 


like  amusement,  and  as  it  affords  a  retreat,  if  necessary,  from  the 
bottle." 

The  "  verses  "  which  he  recited  at  Oxford  that  year  were  the 
Carmen  Sccculare,  a  Prize  Poevi.  These  Latin  hexameters 
record  in  heroic  style  the  progress  of  scholarship,  exploration, 
and  philanthropy  which  ushered  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Read  now,  in  the  light  of  the  century's  history,  not  a  few  pass- 
ages 1  seem  like  a  prediction  of  the  imperial  and  missionary 
triumphs  which  have  given  Great  Britain  the  sway  of  the  fifth 

'      "  Nl-c  lustraro  vias  tanlum  tractiisquc  latentcs 
.K(|uoris  audaccs  jussit  Brittannia  puppcs  ; 
Scilicet  oceani  im])ci'ium  iiivictuinquc  tridentcni 
Cl.issc  virisquc  potcns,  tenet,  rc'ternuiiiqiic  tencljit 
Ilia,  maris  regina  ;  en  !  Plata  bonantibus  undis, 
Ullinius,  cn,  Uaonas,'  et  fulva;  'l  igiis  arena 
I-'nndit  o|X'S  varias,  pra'd;uque  assucta  Malaya 
Snlnnisso  nostras  veneratur  acinace  leges. 
Quid  tantum  memorem  iniperiuni,  quid  subdita  regna 
.i^ithiopum,  primoque  rubentia  littora  sole, 
Kt  quibus  assiduo  curru  jam  Icnior  oris 
Effundit  fessa;  tandem  vis  sera  diei  ? 
Nobis,  quos  rapido  scindit  Laurentius  anme 
Felices  parent  campi,  et  qua  plurima  Ganges 
Regna  lavat,  positis  arinis  conterrita  pacem 
Birma  petit,  gens  dura  virum  petiere  Marattce, 
Quid  Javas  refcram  monies,  quid  saxa  Mysorce? 
Qiiaeque  nimis  tepido  consurgis  proxima  soli, 
Taprobane,  laetasque  tuas,  Kafraria,  vites? 

"  Nec  tanien  has  tantum  meruit  Brittannia  laudes. 
Magna  armis, — major  pietate  ; — hinc  lUe"  reniotos^ 
(I lie,  decus  nostrum,  et  meritas  pars  optima  fanuu) 
I.ustravit  populos,  et  dissita  regna  lyrannimi, 
I'anderet  ut  niajstas  arces  invilaque  I'hcebo 
Limina,  qua  nigris  late  sonuere  cavernis 
.Assidui  geniitus  et  inicjui  pondera  ferri. 

"  nine  ctiani  I.ihyco^  consurgunt  littore  turres, 
Nostrctque  incultis  monstrantur  gcntibus  artes, 
Hesperidum  scopulos  ultra  et  deserta  Sahara^ 
Foeda  situ  :  nec  longa  dies,  cum  servus  iniqua 
Vincula  rumpat  ovans,  et  pictas  Gambia  puppcs 
Et  nova  arenosis  miretur  moenia  ripis  I 

"  O  patria  I  O  felix  nimium  !  seu  pace  volentes 
Alma  regas  populos  et  justa  lege  feroces 
.•\rbitra  compescas,  seu  belli  tela  corusces 
Fulminea  metuenda  manu  ;  tu,  maxima,  ponto, 
Tu  circumfusis,  victrix,  dominaberis  undis  !  " 


1  The  river  of  Ava. 


-  Howard. 


Sierra  Leone. 


20 


BISHOP  HEBER 


pari  of  the  world,  and  have  put  her  in  trust  to  influence  for 
good  the  fourth  of  the  human  race.  The  Latin  poem  was  a 
fitting  preparation  for  the  composition  of  his  Palestine,  which, 
after  a  very  severe  attack  of  influenza,  he  wrote  in  the  spring 
of  1803.  His  own  description  of  "all  the  perplexity  of  form- 
ing a  plan  for  a  long  poem  "  and  of  the  composition,  written  to 
John  Thornton,  has  a  special  interest  in  the  history  of  English 
literature. 

"  After  my  recovery  the  time  was  so  short,  and  the  busi- 
ness so  pressing,  that  you  will  not  wonder  that  I  postponed 
writing  to  you,  among  the  rest  of  the  pleasures  which  I  gave  up, 
till  I  should  have  completed  the  copy.  This  was  accordingly 
given  in  on  Monday  night.  I  know  not  whether  I  told  you  in  my 
last  that  it  is  a  sort  of  prize  extraordinary  for  English  verses, — 
the  subject,  Palestine.  I  was  not  aware  till  yesterday  that  the 
same  subject  had  been  some  time  since  given  for  the  Seatonian 
prize.  I  think  it  on  the  whole  a  fine  one,  as  it  will  admit  of  much 
fancy  and  many  sublime  ideas.  I  know  not  whether  it  ought  to 
have  been  made  exclusively  sacred  or  not.  Many  men  whom  I 
have  talked  with  seem  inclined  to  have  made  it  so  ;  but  I  have 
an  utter  dislike  to  clothing  sacred  subjects  in  verse,  unless  it  be 
done  as  nearly  as  possible  in  Scriptural  language,  and  introduced 
with  great  delicacy.  I  could  not  refrain,  however,  from  mention- 
ing and  rather  enlarging  on  the  Messiah  and  the  last  triumphs  of 
Judea.  The  historical  facts  of  Scripture,  I,  of  course,  made  great 
use  of,  as  well  as  of  the  crusades,  siege  of  Acre,  and  other  pieces 
of  modern  story.  My  brother,  my  tutor,  and  Mr.  Walter  Scott, 
the  author  of  the  Border  Minstrelsy,  whom  I  have  no  doubt  you 
know  by  name,  if  not  personally,  give  me  strong  hopes,  and  I  am, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  hope,  pretty  well  prepared  for  a  disappoint- 
ment. Whether  the  event  be  favourable  or  otherwise,  I  shall 
know  in  alsout  ten  days,  and  will  not  fail  to  communicate  my 
victory  or  defeat.'' 

While  the  composition  was  still  in  progress  he  had  a  break- 
fast party  in  his  room  previous  to  making  a  pleasure  excursion 
to  Blenheim  Park.  Walter  Scott  was  there,  about  to  make 
acquaintance  for  the  first  time  with  \V'oodstock  Manor,  which 
suggested  his  novel  of  1832.  As  he  himself^  afterwards  told 
the  story  to  Mrs.  Heber : — 

'  Sir  Walter  Scott  wrote  in  his  Journal,  12th  March  1829:  "I  read 
Reginald  Heber's  Journal  after  dinner.    I  spent  some  merry  days  with  him  at 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


21 


"  Palestine  became  the  subject  of  conversation,  and  the  poem 
was  produced  and  read.  Sir  Walter  said,  '  You  have  omitted  one 
striking  circumstance  in  your  account  of  the  building  of  the 
temple,  that  no  tools  were  used  in  its  erection.'  Reginald  retired 
from  the  breakfast  table  to  a  corner  of  the  room,  and  before  the 
party  separated,  produced  the  lines  which  now  form  a  part  of  the 
poem  : — 

"  '  No  hammer  fell,  no  ponderous  axes  rung, 
Like  some  tall  palm  the  mystic  fabric  sprung. 
Majestic  silence  ! ' 

"  On  mounting  the  rostrum  to  recite  his  poem,  Reginald  Heber 
was  struck  by  seeing  two  young  ladies,  of  Jewish  extraction,  sit- 
ting in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  theatre.  The  recollection  of 
some  lines  which  reflect  severely  on  their  nation  flashed  across 
his  mind,  and  he  resolved  to  spare  their  feelings  by  softening  the 
passage  which  he  feared  would  give  them  pain,  as  he  proceeded  ; 
but  it  was  impossible  to  communicate  this  intention  to  his  brother, 
who  was  sitting  behind  him  as  prompter,  and  who,  on  the  attempt 
being  made,  immediately  checked  him,  so  that  he  was  forced  to 
recite  the  lines  as  they  were  originally  written." 

After  his  death  Sir  Charles  Grey  recalled  the  scene  of  his 
early  triumph — "  that  elevated  rostrum  from  which  he  looked 
upon  friendly  and  admiring  faces ;  that  decorated  theatre  ; 
those  grave  forms  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  mingling  with  a 
resplendent  throng  of  rank  and  beauty  ;  those  antique  mansions 
of  learning,  those  venerable  groves,  those  refreshing  streams 
and  shaded  walks."    Another  contemporary  thus  wrote  " : — 

"  Heber's  recitation,  like  that  of  all  poets  whom  we  have 


Oxford  when  lie  was  writing  his  prize  poem.  He  was  then  a  gay  young 
fellow,  a  wit  and  a  satirist,  and  burning  for  literary  fame.  IVIy  laurels  were 
beginning  to  bloom,  and  we  were  both  madcaps.  Who  would  have  foretold 
our  future  lot  ? 

"  '  Oh,  little  did  my  mither  ken 
The  day  she  cradled  me, 
The  land  I  was  to  travel  in, 
Or  the  death  I  was  to  dee.'  " 

Old  ballad  (known  as  "  Marie  Hamilton  ")  quoted  by  Burns  in  a  letter  to 
Mrs.  Dunlop  regarding  Falconer,  author  of  The  Shipwreck.  .See  The  Journal 
of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  from  the  original  manuscript  at  Abbotsford,  2  \ols., 
Edinburgh  (David  Douglas),  1891. 

^  Christopher  North  in  BlackwoocT s  Magazine  for  November  1827. 


22 


BISHOP  HEBER 


heard  recite,  was  altogether  untrammelled  by  the  critical  laws  of 
elocution,  which  were  not  set  at  defiance,  but  either  by  the  poet 
unknown  or  forgotten  ;  and  there  was  a  chann  in  his  somewhat 
melancholy  voice,  that  occasionally  faltered,  less  from  a  feeling  of 
the  solemnity  and  even  grandeur  of  the  scene,  of  which  he  was 
himself  the  conspicuous  object — though  that  feeling  did  suffuse 
his  pale,  ingenuous,  and  animated  countenance — than  from  the 
deeply-felt  sanctity  of  his  subject,  comprehending  the  most  awful 
mysteries  of  God's  revelations  to  man.  As  his  voice  grew  bolder 
and  more  sonorous  in  the  hush,  the  audience  felt  that  this  was  not 
the  mere  display  of  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  a  clever  youth,  the 
accidental  triumph  of  an  accomplished  versifier  over  his  compeers, 
in  the  dexterity  of  scholarship,  which  is  all  that  can  generally  be 
truly  said  of  such  exhibitions, — but  that  here  was  a  poet  indeed, 
not  only  of  bright  promise,  but  of  high  achievement, — one  whose 
name  was  already  written  in  the  roll  of  the  immortals.  And  that 
feeling,  whatever  might  have  been  the  share  of  the  boundless 
enthusiasm,  with  which  the  poem  was  listened  to,  attributable  to 
the  influence  of  the  genius  loci,  has  been  since  sanctioned  by  the 
judgment  of  the  world  that  has  placed  Palestine  at  the  \  ery  head 
of  the  poetry  on  divine  subjects  of  this  age.  It  is  now  incor- 
porated for  ever  with  the  poetry  of  England." 

Like  Henry  Martyn  when  he  came  out  Senior  Wrangler  at 
Cambridge  two  years  before,  Reginald  Heber  at  once  retired 
to  his  room,  where  his  mother  found  him  giving  thanks  to  God. 

The  long  vacation  of  that  year  he  spent  at  Malpas,  helping 
his  brother  Richard  to  raise  a  corps  of  volunteers  against  the 
French  invasion  then  threatened.  The  old  rector's  son  formed 
at  this  time  the  beginning  of  an  affectionate  friendship  with 
Charlotte  Dod,  one  of  the  five  daughters  of  his  father's  friend, 
the  squire  of  Edge,  a  beautiful  and  romantic  place  two  miles 
off.  At  the  Scar — half-way — they  often  met,  at  archery  meet- 
ings and  the  like,  and  in  the  subsequent  years,  almost  up  to 
his  sudden  death.  Miss  Dod  was  the  sisterly  correspondent  to 
whom  he  loved  to  pour  forth  his  confidence,  as  we  shall  see. 
To  that  early  period  this  fragment  of  verse  seems  to  owe  its 
composition  : — 

"  Oh  kind,  and  beautiful,  and  good. 
Dear  rose  of  blooming  womanhood  ! 
Whate'er  of  female  grace  I  see 
My  memory  still  compares  with  thee, 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


23 


And  of  the  fairest  forms  I  say, 
They  please,  since  Flora  is  away. 

"  Cheer'd  by  thy  friendly  smile,  again 
My  heart  forgets  its  useless  pain  ; 
Cheer'd  by  thy  smile,  again  I  share 
The  tutor's  and  the  brother's  care. 
Oh,  cx  crniorc  in  smiles  be  drest ! 
I  cannot  gric\e  while  thou  art  blest." 

Born  in  1786,  she  was  married  in  1834  to  a  clergyman,  who 
assumed  the  name  of  Dod.  She  died  in  1867,  and  was  buried 
at  Malpas.  It  was  while  sitting  at  tea  with  Charlotte  and  the 
rest  of  the  family  that,  at  her  father's  request,  Heber  wrote 
these  verses,  which  were  sung  at  the  meeting  of  the  Volunteer 
Infantry  Corps  next  morning: — 


HONOUR  ITS  OWN  REWARD 

"  Swell,  swell  the  shrill  trumpet  clear  sounding  afar, 
Our  sabres  flash  splendour  around. 
For  freedom  has  summon'd  her  sons  to  the  war, 
Nor  Britain  has  shrunk  from  the  sound. 

"  Let  plunder's  vile  thirst  the  invaders  inflame, 
Let  slaves  for  their  wages  be  bold. 
Shall  valour  the  harvest  of  avarice  claim  ? 
Shall  Britons  be  barter'd  for  gold  ? 

"  No  !  free  be  our  aid,  independent  our  might. 
Proud  honour  our  guerdon  alone  ; 
Unhired  be  the  hand  we  raise  in  the  fight. 
The  sword  that  we  brandish  our  own. 

"  Still  all  that  we  love  to  our  thoughts  shall  succeed. 
Their  image  each  labour  shall  cheer. 
For  them  we  will  conquer — for  them  we  will  bleed. 
And  our  pay  be  a  smile  or  a  tear  ! 

"  And  oh  !  if  returning  triumphant  we  move. 
Or  sink  on  tlic  land  that  we  sa\-e, 
Oh  !  blest  hy  his  country,  his  kindred,  his  love, 
How  vast  the  reward  of  the  brave  ! " 


24 


BISHOP  HEBER 


The  following  seems  to  have  been  the  first  of  the  many 
Bow-meeting  songs '  which  he  composed  : — 

THE  SONG  OF  THE  BOW 

"  There  is  peace  on  the  fallow  and  peace  on  the  moor, 
The  pheasant  and  grouse  are  from  slaughter  secure  ; 
The  fox  in  his  covert,  the  hare  on  her  down 
May  gambol  in  bliss  till  the  summer  is  flown. 

"  The  patriot  is  off,  for  the  session  is  o'er  ; 
The  minister  climbs  to  his  chariot  and  four  ; 
Short  respite  I  wist  for  a  while  is  their  own. 
And  queens  may  be  queens  till  the  summer  is  flown. 

"  The  beauty  betakes  her,  her  charms  to  repair, 
From  the  smoke  wreaths  of  London  to  Denbighshire  air; 
Tulle,  trimming,  and  tinsel  behind  her  are  thrown. 
And  green  is  the  go  till  the  summer  is  flown. 

"  The  pike  and  the  trout  may  some  pleasure  bestow, 
But  when  did  the  fishing-rod  rival  the  bow  ? 
And  who  mid  the  marshes  would  linger  alone 
Who  might  banquet  with  us  till  the  summer  is  flown  ? 

"  How  blithe  is  our  revel,  how  green  is  our  shade, 
How  soft  are  the  tones  of  the  breeze  in  the  glade  ! 
How  rosy  the  smiles  that  around  us  are  thrown  ! 
Oh,  such  be  our  joys  till  the  summer  is  flown  1 

"  Then  up  to  your  sport,  and  the  trial  resume, 
Ye  lads  for  the  medal,  ye  girls  for  the  plume  ! 
I  ha\  e  seen  better  shooting  before,  I  must  own. 
But  we  all  may  improve  ere  the  summer  is  flown  ! " 

To  John  TJtornton,  Esq. 

1803. 

"  Palcsiinc  I  have  not  published  ;  but  if  you  will  accept  a 
copy,  I  ha\  e  desired  my  brother  to  leave  it  in  St.  James's  Square. 


1  "  And  David  l.amcntcd  with  this  lamentation  over  Saul  and  over  Jona- 
than his  son  :  and  he  bade  them  teaeh  the  children  of  Judah  the  (Song  of 
the)  Bow:  behold,  it  is  written  in  the  book  of  lashar.  " — 2  Sam.  i.  17.  18. 
Revised  I  -ersion. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


25 


I  hope  your  military  career  is  prosperous.  I  have  myself  been 
pretty  similarly  employed,  together  with  Heber,  who  has  had 
great  success  in  raising  a  corps  of  infantry  on  my  father's  estate. 
All  here  are  furiously  loyal,  and  my  brother  has  found  more  difficulty 
in  rejecting  than  in  soliciting.  I  do  not  apprehend  that  our  ser- 
vices will  be  wanted,  though,  as  Liverpool  is  an  expected  point  of 
attack,  we  may  in  that  case  become  really  useful. 

"  The  Shropshire  volunteers  are,  in  case  of  necessity,  to  be 
united  into  a  legion,  commanded  by  Mr.  Kynaston  Powell,  the 
member  for  the  county.  You  give  me  a  full  account  of  your 
military  proceedings,  but  not  a  word  of  your  academical.  Pray 
do  not  utterly  throw  aside  the  gown  for  the  sabre  ;  I  intend  to 
try  whether  they  are  not  very  compatible,  as  I  fag  and  drill  by 
turns.  My  brother  talks  of  running  me  for  the  honours  next  year. 
I  own  I  am  unwilling,  but  he  is  urgent,  and  I  must  work  hard." 

In  the  second  term,  early  in  1804,  Reginald  received  the 
"  dreadful  summons  "  to  return  immediately  to  his  dying  father, 
whose  removal  gave  a  new  spiritual  impulse  to  liis  son,  as  had 
happened  in  Henry  Martyn's  case.    To  Thornton  he  wrote  : — 

"Malpas,  imd  February  1804. 
"  His  days  were  without  ease  and  his  nights  without  sleep  ;  his 
mind  remained  the  same,  blessing  God  for  every  little  interval  of 
pain,  and  delighting  to  recount  the  mercies  he  had  experienced, 
and  to  give  his  children  comfort  and  ad\  ice.  These  conversations, 
which  were  much  more  frecjuent  than  his  strength  could  well  bear, 
I  trust  in  God  I  shall  never  forget.  Our  hopes  in  the  meantime 
were  buoyed  up  by  many  fair  appearances,  and  by  the  gradual 
diminution  of  his  pains  ;  but  we  could  not  long  deceive  ourselves. 
When  at  length  all  hopes  were  over,  we  knelt  around  his  bed,  his 
wife  and  all  his  children  ;  he  blessed  us,  and  over  and  over  again 
raised  his  feeble  voice  to  bid  us  be  Christians  and  to  hold  fast  our 
faith  ;  he  spoke  of  the  world  as  a  '  den  of  wild  beasts '  that  he 
rejoiced  to  leave,  and  prayed  God  to  guard  us  in  our  journey 
through  it.  My  mother  was  quite  overwhelmed  with  grief  and 
fatigue,  having  for  six  weeks  never  taken  off  her  clothes.  He 
chid  her  gently  for  sorrowing  as  without  hope,  and  talked  much 
of  the  Divine  Rock  on  which  his  hope  was  founded.  The  next 
morning  he  expressed  a  wish  to  receive  the  Sacrament,  and  bade 
me,  in  the  meantime,  read  the  prayer  in  our  liturgy  for  a  person 
at  the  point  of  death.     I,  through  my  tears,  made  a  blunder  which 


26 


BISHOP  HEBER 


he  corrected  me  in  from  memory.  He  now  expressed  some 
impatience  for  the  Sacrament,  saying  he  '  hoped  not  to  be  detained 
long.'  Mr.  Bridge  1  arrived,  and  we  all  together  partook  of  the 
most  solemn  communion  that  we  can  ever  expect  to  join  in  in  this 
world,  to  which,  indeed,  my  father  seemed  scarcely  to  belong.  A 
smile  sate  on  his  pale  countenance,  and  his  eyes  sparkled  brighter 
than  I  ever  saw  them.  From  this  time  he  spoke  but  little,  his 
lips  moved,  and  his  eyes  were  raised  upwards.  He  blessed  us 
again  ;  we  kissed  him  and  found  his  lips  and  cheeks  cold  and 
breathless.  O  Thornton,  may  you  (after  many  years)  feel  as  we 
did  then  ! 

"  I  return  to  Oxford  in  the  course  of  next  week  ;  my  mother 
and  sister  go  to  Hodnet,  to  which  my  brother  has,  with  the  kind- 
ness and  affection  which  he  has  always  shown,  invited  us  as  to 
a  home." 

Having  taken  his  B.A.  degree  and  gained  the  University 
Bachelor's  prize  for  the  English  prose  essay  on  A  Sense  of 
Honour,  Reginald  Heber  was  elected  one  of  the  fifty  Fellows 
who  enjoy  now  the  endowments  of  All  Souls — the  college  of 
Jeremy  Taylor,  Herrick,  and  Blackstone.  There  his  portrait 
also  adorns  the  hall,  and  since  1893  a  window  has  been  put 
in  to  his  memory,  in  which  he  appears  in  the  red  robe  of  a 
Doctor  of  Divinity.    To  Thornton  he  wrote  : — 

"...  I  even  now  begin  to  find  the  comfort  of  my  new  situa- 
tion, which  is,  for  any  young  man,  particularly  if  he  reads  at  all, 
certainly  most  envialjle.  I  am  now  become,  for  the  present,  almost 
settled  in  Oxford,  and  a  visit  from  you  would  make  me  quite — 
what  I  am  already  almost — the  happiest  fellow  in  England. 

"  I  have,  according  to  your  recommendation,  read  Lord  Teign- 
mouth's  Sir  Williani  Jones,  which  pleases  me  very  much,  and  is,  I 
think,  though  rather  lengthy  (as  the  Americans  say),  an  interesting 
and  well  done  thing.  As  to  my  admiration  of  Sir  \V.  Jones,  it  is 
rather  increased  than  diminished,  by  seeing  the  tackle  and  compon- 
ent parts  of  which  so  mighty  a  genius  was  formed  ;  and  his  system 
of  study  is  instructive  as  well  as  wonderful.  It  has  excited  much 
interest  in  Oxford,  where  he  is  still  remembered  with  admiration 
and  affection  by  the  senior  men." 

His  generous  sympathies,  his  reading,  and  his  three  poems  at 
school  and  college  had  all  led  him  to  take  a  practical  interest 

'  Mr.  Heber's  curate  at  Malpas. 


MALPAS  AND  OXFORD 


27 


in  the  great  missionary  movement  at  home  and  abroad.  In 
the  same  letter  he  informs  Thornton  : — 

"  After  much  deliberation  concerning  which  of  the  two  societies 
for  Pronioting  Christian  Knowledge  I  should  subscribe  to,  I  have 
at  length  determined  upon  both  ;  you  will  therefore  oblige  me  if 
you  will  put  down  the  enclosed,  under  the  signature  of  O.  A.,  to 
the  fund  of  the  Bible  Society.  I  would  not  trouble  you  in  this  if 
I  had  not  lost  the  paper  you  were  so  good  as  to  send  me,  so  that 
I  do  not  recollect  the  proper  direction.  I  have  in  one  or  two 
instances  beat  up  for  recruits  to  the  institution,  but  do  not  know 
whether  successfully  or  not.  I  am  strongly  convinced  that  the 
union  of  the  Bible  Society  with  either  of  the  former  ones  would 
be  productive  of  very  good  effects  ;  if  all  three  were  united  it 
would  be  best  of  all." 

He  was  now  formally  equipped  for  his  life-work,  and  the 
Rectory  of  Hodnet  was  ready  for  him  ;  but,  with  his  friend 
Thornton,  he  resolved  to  make  such  a  tour  of  Europe  and  the 
East  as  was  possible  at  that  time. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  GRAND  TOUR   IN   THE  YEAR   OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA 
1805-1806 

Reginald  Heber  passed  out  of  Oxford  the  first  man  in  the 
university,  in  personal  influence  and  popularity,  in  literature  and 
in  scholarship.  So  beloved  and  so  flattered  was  he  that  some 
of  his  friends  feared  the  possible  injury  to  the  native  uncon- 
sciousness of  his  character  and  the  simplicity  of  his  soul. 
They  need  not  have  been  alarmed,  natural  as  were  their  fears. 
But  the  desire  of  his  brother  and  mother  that  he  should  see 
the  world  of  Europe,  should  know  the  men  and  the  manners 
of  other  lands,  before  settling  down  to  the  exacting  duties  of  a 
great  English  parish,  jumped  with  his  own.  His  reading  had 
been  so  varied,  and  his  interests  so  wide,  that  no  youth  in 
England  was  better  prepared  intelligently  to  observe  and 
benefit  by  all  he  might  see.  Alike  as  a  student  and  a 
volunteer,  and  as  devoted  to  his  elder  brother's  political 
career,  he  had  a  keen  interest  in  the  course  of  events  which 
William  Pitt  was  directing  at  home  and  against  Napoleon 
Buonaparte's  ambition.  He  could  not  enter  France,  or, 
indeed.  Southern  Europe,  but  the  Scandinavian  countries, 
Russia  with  the  Crimea,  Hungary,  Austria,  and  the  greater 
part  of  Germany  were  open  to  him.  To  these  he  gave  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  twenty-second  year  of  his  life. 

The  nine  years  of  the  first  war  with  Revolutionary  France 
had  been  closed  by  the  Peace  of  Amiens  in  1802.  In  1803 
the  twelve  years  of  the  second  war  had  begun.  The  opening 
of  the  year  1805  had  seen  the  coalition  of  Great  Britain, 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  29 


Austria,  and  Russia  against  Napoleon,  the  failure  of  his  design 
for  the  invasion  of  England,  and  the  march  of  his  seven  army 
corps  for  the  war  on  the  Danube.  Nelson's  crowning  victory 
at  Trafalgar  was  about  to  confirm  the  British  supremacy  on  the 
sea,  soon  to  be  followed  by  the  battle  of  iVusterlitz  and  the 
death  of  Pitt  at  forty-seven,  when  on  the  first  day  of  August 
1805  Heber  and  his  friend  John  Thornton  landed  from  their 
little  sloop  at  Gothenburg.  Alarmed  by  a  ship  of  war  which 
did  not  answer  his  signals,  the  captain  had  brought  the  mail 
on  deck  to  sink  it,  when  the  armed  vessel  turned  out  to  be 
H.M.S.  Scout,  searching  for  French  privateers,  and  she  con- 
voyed them  as  far  as  the  Naze.  Heber's  letters  to  his  mother 
and  to  Richard,  and  his  journals  throughout  the  tour,  give  as 
lively  a  picture  of  Northern  and  Central  Europe  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century  as  his  graver  narrative,  when  on  his 
metropolitan  tour  afterwards,  supplied  of  India  and  Ceylon. 
The  scenery  of  the  country,  the  social  condition  and  art 
treasures  of  the  great  cities,  the  economic  resources  and  the 
state  of  the  people,  the  spiritual  aspects  and  ecclesiastical 
organisation,  and  even  the  amusements  of  each  nation  come 
under  review,  lightly  touched  by  the  pen  of  one  who  was  in 
the  best  sense  a  man  of  the  world  and  a  catholic  Christian. 
Not  once  is  narrowness,  or  intolerance,  or  frivolity  found.  The 
party  enjoyed  letters  of  introduction  to  the  leading  men  and 
families  on  their  diversified  route,  and  were  not  slow  to 
comment  on  the  political  combinations  and  prospects  of  each 
country  at  a  time  when  the  fate  of  Europe  and  of  the  liberty 
of  mankind  hung  on  the  sacrifice  and  tenacity  of  the  British 
people. 

In  a  two-horse  carriage,  bought  for  the  occasion,  Heber 
and  Thornton  posted  over  a  considerable  part  of  Sweden  and 
Norway.  AVriting  from  Stockholm  to  his  brother  on  the  14th 
September  1805,  Reginald  summarises  the  impressions  formed 
during  a  tour  of  six  weeks. 

"  E.xcepting  Upsala  and  Dannemora,  our  journey  has  taken  in 
nothing  very  remarkable,  and  concerning  Norway,  the  mcniorabilia 
are  too  numerous  for  a  letter,  and  must  be  reserved  for  our  future 
conversations.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  to  have  an  uninterest- 
ing shell,  with  one  of  the  richest  and  most  beautiful  kernels  in  the 
world.    The  neighbourhood  of  Friderickshall  is  certainly  striking, 


3° 


BISHOP  HEBER 


but  far  inferior  in  beauty  to  the  romantic  descriptions  and  draw- 
ings which  I  have  seen  of  it  ;  and  the  people,  who  affect  to  de- 
spise the  Swedes,  fah  far  short  of  them  both  in  civihsation  and 
honesty.  The  western  coast,  Bergen,  Christiansund,  etc.,  we  did 
not  see  ;  by  all  accounts,  the  manners  are  almost  as  wild,  and 
the  country  quite  as  savage,  as  in  the  neighbouring  regions  of 
Labrador  and  Greenland.  Yet  hence  the  wealth  of  Norway  is 
chiefly  derived  ;  and  the  innumerable  fiords  and  siinds,  which 
intersect  the  country,  while  they  separate  the  people  from  all  com- 
merce with  the  interior,  supply  almost  the  entire  Mediterranean 
with  fish,  and  are  the  means  of  accumulating  very  considerable 
wealth  to  individuals  and  the  government. 

"  The  formidable  mountains  towards  Sweden  present  a  terrible 
scene  of  cold  and  barrenness.  At  Roraas,  where  are  their 
principal  copper-mines,  no  corn  or  garden-stuff  will  grow,  and  in 
winter  quicksilver  is  frozen.  We  stayed  here  a  day  or  two,  and 
went  a  day's  journey  into  the  mountains  in  quest  of  a  small  tribe 
of  Lajjlandcrs,  or  Finns,  as  the  Danes  call  them,  who  have  been, 
time  immemorial,  wanderers  in  this  neighbourhood.  In  the 
valleys  we  had  been  tormented  by  heat,  but  in  this  inhospitable 
tract  it  snowed  fast,  and  probably  does  so  occasionally  through 
the  whole  summer.  The  fir-trees  were  no  longer  visible,  and  all 
the  wood  that  remained  was  some  stunted  birch  in  the  sheltered 
situations  ;  at  last  these,  too,  disappeared,  and  nothing  was  seen 
but  rotten  bog,  and  rocks  covered  with  lichen,  a  white  mealy  moss, 
which  has  more  the  appearance  of  a  leprosy  than  a  pasture.  In 
short,  I  could  easily  conceive  how  a  Swedish  amiy,  in  the  time  of 
Charles  XII.,  had  been  entirely  destroyed  by  the  cold  in  an 
attempt  to  cross  these  terrible  >7A.i'  (fells),  and  was  not  a  little 
glad  to  warm  myself  in  the  miserable  wigwam  of  the  people  of 
whom  we  were  in  quest.  Their  huts  are  exactly  resembling  those 
of  the  Tchutski,  given  in  Cook's  last  voyage,  but  are  neither  so 
large  nor  so  high  ;  and  they  still  preserve  their  race,  language, 
and  dress.  . 

"  Vet  in  spite  of  this  inhospitable  frontier,  the  interior  of 
Norway  is  a  most  delightful  and  interesting  countiy.  Heder- 
marken,  Gulbrandsdale,  Trondheim  and  Oesterdal  would  hardly 
give  up  the  palm  of  beauty  and  fertility  to  the  finest  valleys  of 
Wales  and  Cumberland  ;  and  the  appearance  of  comfort,  and 
even  wealth,  in  the  cottages  of  the  peasants  is,  as  a  general 
characteristic,  far  beyond  anything  of  the  kind  in  our  own 
country.  I  was  surprised,  at  first,  at  the  great  apparent  liberty 
of  all  classes  ;  but  soon  found  reason  to  attribute  the  mildness  of 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  31 


their  government  to  the  weakness  of  the  ruling  nation,  and  the 
circumstance  that  every  peasant  in  Norway  is  armed  and  dis- 
ciphned. 

"...  Their  songs,  of  which  I  contrived  to  collect  a  few,  arc  in 
the  same  measure,  and  frequently  almost  in  the  same  language 
as  the  old  English  ;  and  many  apparent  differences  only  arise 
from  the  vile  system  of  spelling,  which  the  Danish  Government 
has  introduced  to  make  it  different  from  Swedish.  The  genius  of 
the  language,  however,  certainly  differs  from  ours,  and  we  must, 
I  think,  have  got  our  grammar  from  some  cjuarter  distinct  from 
Scandina\ia.  An  Englishman,  nevertheless,  particularly  if  he 
knows  anything  of  Yorkshire,  will  hardly  mistake  their  meaning 
when  he  hears  of  a  '  bra  bairn,'  an  '  ox  stek,'  a  '  kalf  stek,'  when 
he  is  told  '  sitla  dcre,'  or  '  ga  til  kirchen  '  ;  a  '  skort  simmer,'  a 
'  cald  winter,'  '  snee,'  '  swerd,'  and  ten  thousand  other  words  are 
equally  similar. 

"Though  the  Norwegians  rather  pride  themselves  on  their 
affinity  to  England,  I  do  not  think  our  nation  is  popular.  Mr. 
Pitt  is  most  cordially  hated  both  in  Norway  and  Sweden.  We 
ourselves,  however,  experienced  the  greatest  hospitality  from 
every  t|uarter. 

"  The  road  through  Sweden,  from  Koningsberg  to  Upsala, 
lay  through  a  flat  well-cultivated  country,  which  had  nothing  to 
distinguish  it  from  Leicestershire,  or  any  other  country  of  the 
same  sort,  except  the  rockiness  of  the  soil.  Our  route  from 
Gothenburg/to  Norway  had  given  us  a  very  false  idea  of  the  general 
appearance  of  the  country.  Sweden  may  be  compared,  in  general, 
to  a  marble  table  covered  with  baize  ;  it  is  level  indeed  and 
green,  but  the  veil  is  thin,  and  every  here  and  there  the  stone 
peeps  through  the  cracks  of  its  covering.  Farming  is  well 
understood,  and  the  soil,  though  very  light,  is  not  unproductive. 
...  At  Wcsteraes  is  a  small  cathedral,  with  many  tombs  of 
kings  and  great  men.  At  Upsala  we  passed  two  days,  and  saw 
c\ery thing  of  note  in  this  northern  Athens.  There  is  a  very 
respectable  library,  and  a  noble  building  as  a  green-house  and 
museum,  built  by  Gustavus  the  Third,  of  which  the  principal 
portico  is  Doric,  very  remarkable  for  its  proportion  and  beauty. 
The  botanical  garden  is  like  that  of  Trinity,  only  much  larger  ; 
of  the  plants  you  know  I  am  perfectly  incompetent  to  judge. 
The  cathedral  is  well  proportioned,  and  has  been  of  the  best  style 
of  Gothic  in  general  ;  plain,  and  not  very  unlike  Westminster 
Abbey.  The  inhabitants  are  very  proud  of  it,  and  have  taken 
care  to  remove  all  the  carved  work  or  tracery  from  the  windows, 


32 


BISHOP  HEBER 


to  daub  the  inside  with  plaister,  and  to  case  the  outside  with  the 
very  reddest  brick  they  could  find.  This,  with  large  white  Doric 
cornices,  and  two  bright  blue  things,  like  pepper-boxes,  on  the 
two  towers,  has  so  beautified  it,  that,  if  the  bishop  who  founded 
it,  and  the  mason  who  built  it,  were  to  return  again,  they  would 
not  know  their  own  child  in  its  present  dashing  uniform. 

"  From  Upsala  we  went  to  Osterby,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Tame, 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Dannemora  mine.  We  found  a  very 
hospitable  reception,  and  met  with  a  large  and  pleasant  party. 
The  mines  we  saw,  of  course,  and  I  can  hardly  express  the  sensa- 
tions of  astonishment  they  caused.  All  other  mines  I  have  seen 
are  dark  and  dirty  cellars  in  comparison  ;  here  it  is  Vathek's 
chasm  and  portal  of  ebony  realised.  You  find,  not  a  dark  and 
narrow  shaft  like  a  well,  but  a  mouth  of  an  irregular  form,  more, 
1  think,  than  two  hundred  yards  long,  and,  in  one  place,  at  least 
eighty  wide.  On  different  parts  of  this  enormous  gulph  are  the 
cranes  and  buckets  by  which  you  are  let  down  to  the  bottom,  four 
hundred  and  eighty  feet ;  the  side  is,  for  about  two  hundred  feet,  a 
smooth  iron  rock;  at  length  there  are  other  masses  which  arise  like 
islands,  and  you  sec  opening  on  every  side  the  prodigious  caverns 
whence  the  ore  is  taken  ;  one  of  them  into  which  we  descended 
is  a  vault  higher  for  some  little  way  than  the  nave  of  York 
Minster.  Notwithstanding  the  width  of  the  chasm  above,  the 
rays  of  the  sun  fall  too  obliquely  to  reach  the  bottom,  which  is 
the  region  of  eternal  ice  and  twilight. 

"  The  road  to  Stockholm  is  through  the  same  rocky,  green, 
cultivated  country  as  the  rest  of  Sweden,  excepting  that  towards 
the  capital  the  appearance  becomes  more  woody,  uneven,  and 
even  romantic.  Nothing,  indeed,  can  be  more  so  than  the 
situation  of  this  extraordinary  town,  which  is  a  collection  of  rocks 
scattered  irregularly  in  a  wide  arm  of  the  sea  (or  lake,  call  it 
which  you  will),  connected  by  bridges,  covered  with  buildings  and 
gardens,  the  domes  of  churches  intermingled  with  oaks,  and  the 
whole  surrounded  by  an  enormous  palace,  as  big,  I  think,  as  five 
Somerset  Houses.  It  is,  however,  chiefly  of  brick,  but  universally 
stuccoed  or  whitewashed.  The  houses  are  all  large  and  many- 
storied,  with  a  common  staircase.  .  .  .  The  quays,  however,  are 
some  of  them  very  noble,  and  the  public  buildings,  though  mostly 
small,  in  good  taste." 

After  visiting  Finland  in  a  fishing-boat,  which  pleasantly 
threaded  the  beautifully -wooded  Archipelago  of  Aland,  and 
experiencing  disappointment  with  the  provincial  capital  Abo,  in 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  33 


sfjite  of  its  then  being  "  the  most  nortliern  university  in  the 
world,  an  archiepiscopal  and  archiducal  city,  the  queen  of 
Finland,  Bothnia,  and  Lapland,"  the  travellers  arrived  at 
Petersburg  1  on  8th  October  1805. 

"  On  our  route  from  Louisa,  the  last  frontier  town  in  Sweden, 
to  Petersburg,  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  change  which 
takes  place  in  the  appearance,  dress,  and  apparent  circumstances 
of  the  peasantry.  In  Swedish  Finland  the  peasant  has  all  the 
cleanliness,  industry,  and  decency  of  a  Swede  ;  he  is  even  more 
sober,  but  very  inferior  in  honesty.  In  Russia  you  see  an 
immediate  deterioration  in  morals,  cleanliness,  wealth,  and  every- 
thing but  intelligence  and  cunning.  The  horses,  which  througli 
the  Swedish  territories  were  uniformly  good,  became  poor  miser- 
able hacks ;  and  to  the  good  roads,  which  we  had  enjoyed 
ever  since  we  left  Gothenburg,  we  now  bade  a  long,  very  long 
adieu. 

"  During  the  time  of  our  journey,  all  the  northern  garrisons 
were  greatly  thinned  on  account  of  the  war.  We  passed  several 
regiments  on  their  march,  and  were  much  pleased  with  the  cleanli- 
ness, good  clothing,  and  soldier-like  appearance  of  the  men,  in 
which  they  far  exceeded  the  Swedes." 

To  the  English  patriot  Russia  was  at  that  time  an  object 
of  vital  interest.  Six  months  before,  William  Pitt's  diplomacy 
had  succeeded  in  concluding,  at  Petersburg,  the  treaty, 
offensive  and  defensive,  which  started  with  this  preamble : 
"As  the  state  of  suffering  in  which  Europe  is  placed  demands 
immediate  remedy,  their  Majesties  have  mutually  determined 
to  consult  upon  the  means  of  putting  stop  thereto,  without 
waiting  for  fresh  encroachments  on  the  part  of  the  French 
Government."  The  general  league  of  the  States  of  Europe 
thus  aimed  at  had  been  joined  by  Sweden  just  after  Heber 
had  crossed  the  Dovrefelds,  and  the  cabinet  of  Vienna  had  at 
last  arranged  the  terms  of  its  co-operation,  although  Prussia, 
coveting  Hanover,  still  held  out,  to  its  ultimate  injury,  while 
it  thus  contributed  immediately  to  the  French  victory  of 
Austerlitz.     Russia  was  busy  in  raising  and  equipping  its 

^  E.  D.  Clarke,  LL.  D. ,  used  the  valuable  MS.  Journal  of  Heber  for  ex- 
tracts in  the  notes  to  his  Travels  in  Russian  Taitary  and  Tnrkiy,  in  the 
preface  to  which  he  wrote — "  In  addition  to  Mr.  Hebcr's  habitual  accuracy 
may  be  mentioned  the  statistical  information  which  stamps  a  peculiar  value  on 
his  observations."    Clarke  travelled  in  1800. 

D 


34 


BISHOP  HEBER 


share  of  the  half  million  of  men  for  whom  England  was 
supplying  the  splendid  subsidies  at  the  rate  of  at  least  six 
millions  and  a  quarter  sterling.  Had  Pitt  sent  across  an  army 
corps  to  check  the  march  of  the  French  from  Boulogne  to  the 
Danube,  Austerlitz  might  never  have  been  fought.  To  live 
at  such  a  time,  and  to  be  in  a  position  to  watch  the  course  of 
the  greatest  events  in  the  world's  history,  was  for  these  two 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  men  a  rare  joy. 

M.  Novosiltzoff,  the  Russian  statesman  who  had  backed 
Pitt  in  securing  the  co-operation  of  Austria,  had  been  striving 
for  the  same  object  at  Berlin  with  the  King  of  Prussia,  who 
despatched  M.  Zastroff  to  Petersburg,  hoping  to  avert  the 
impending  collision.  The  only  result  was  a  fruitless  negotia- 
tion between  Russia  and  France,  which  arrested  war  for  three 
months.  Ultimately,  on  3rd  November,  the  King  of  Prussia 
signed  a  secret  convention  with  the  Czar. 

"Petersburg,  2-]th  October  1805. 

"  Dear  Mother — By  the  arrival  of  Hanbury  and  Stackhouse, 
two  Englishmen  whom  we  left  at  Stockholm,  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  receiving  your  second  letter,  which  had  not  reached  that  place 
during  our  stay  there.  Believe  me  it  was  a  very  great  pleasure  to 
hear  of  the  good  health  of  my  English  circle  of  friends  (for  Hodnet 
seems  very  seldom  to  contain  you  all  at  once),  especially  as  I  had 
been  disappointed  of  finding  any  letters  at  Petersburg.  Our 
time  is  passed  pleasantly  and,  I  hope,  profitably,  in  learning 
German,  improving  in  French,  seeing  sights,  and  listening  to, 
not  joining  in,  political  discussions.  These  employments,  with  a 
few  Greek  books  which  I  hope  to  borrow,  will  give  us  ample 
amusement  for  the  time  we  intend  to  stay  here.  .  .  . 

"  All  here  are  in  high  spirits  about  the  war,  particularly  since 
the  accession  of  Prussia.  The  emperor,  indeed,  is  so  popular, 
that  he  could  scarcely  do  anj^hing  of  which  his  people  would 
not  approve.  It  is  far  otherwise  in  the  country  we  have  lately 
quitted  ;  general  ill -humour  and  dissatisfaction  at  all  public 
measures,  mutual  distrust  between  the  king  and  his  people,  and 
a  bitter  sense  of  their  present  weakness,  contrasted  with  their 
ancient  military  glory,  are  at  present  conspicuous  in  every  society 
and  conversation  in  Sweden.  .  .  . 

"  The  emperor  was  set  oft"  for  Germany  before  our  arrival. 
Lord  Leveson  Gowcr's  departure,  which  took  place  soon  after- 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  35 


wards,  was  a  still  greater  disappointment,  as  he  had  met  with 
great  kindness  and  civility  from  him  ;  and  if  he  had  stayed  we 
should  have  been  introduced  to  the  best  society  in  the  best  pos- 
sible manner.  Mr.  Moeler,  the  Hanoverian  envoy,  to  whom  Sand- 
ford  had  procured  me  a  letter,  has,  however,  been  a  very  valuable 
acquaintance  ;  by  his  means  we  are  likely  to  see  a  good  deal  of 
the  best  circles  here.  The  town  is,  of  course,  by  no  means  full, 
as  many  of  the  nobility  are  with  the  army,  and  many  more  have 
not  yet  left  their  country  houses." 

"Petersburg,  December  1S05. 
"Dear  Brother — .  .  .  Of  the  palaces  here  and  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, the  Taurida  is  the  only  one  that  has  quite  answered  my 
expectation  ;  the  winter  garden  there,  which  is  a  grove  of  ever- 
greens in  a  vast  saloon,  is  perhaps  a  matchless  piece  of  elegant 
luxury.  The  great  palace  is  a  vast  tasteless  pile  of  plaistered 
brick,  and  the  marble  palace  is  tamely  conceived,  and  its  pilasters 
look  like  slices  of  potted  beef  or  char.  In  the  great  palace  are 
some  good  pictures  ;  the  Houghton  collection  is  in  the  Hermitage, 
which  is  now  under  repair.  What  interested  me  most  were  the 
private  rooms  of  the  emperor  and  empress,  which  were  remarkable 
for  their  comfort,  neatness,  and  simplicity.  Alexander's  private 
study  and  dressing-room,  which,  though  not  generally  shown,  we 
were  permitted  to  see,  was  apparently  just  as  he  had  left  it,  and 
answered  completely  my  ideas  of  what  a  monarch's  retirement 
ought  to  be.  The  table  was  heaped  with  books,  which  we  were 
not  allowed  to  meddle  with  or  take  up,  but  among  which  I  thought 
I  distinguished  Guichard  and  Folard ;  and  round  the  room, 
which  is  small,  were  piled  a  great  number  of  swords,  musquets, 
rifles,  and  bayonets  of  different  kinds  and  inventions  ;  in  the 
window  seats  were  some  books  of  finance.  The  whole  was  so 
carelessly  and  naturally  arranged,  that  I  am  convinced  it  was  not 
intended  as  a  show.  In  fact,  his  aversion  to  display  of  all  kinds 
is  the  most  striking  part  of  his  character,  and  it  is  even  carried  to 
excess.  As  he  is  now  in  person  with  the  army,  and  has,  it  is 
said,  expressed  a  wish  to  win  his  spurs  before  he  assumes  the 
military  order  of  St.  George,  I  fear  we  have  little  probability  of 
seeing  him  before  we  leave  Petersburg.  The  Russians  and 
English  attempt  to  outdo  each  other  in  his  praises  ;  and  the 
women  in  particular  speak  of  him  as  the  best,  the  most  polite, 
and  the  handsomest  man  in  the  world.  But  after  all  allowance 
is  made  for  their  partiality,  he  appears  to  be  really  of  a  very 
amiable  temper  and  manners,  and  a  clear  unperverted  head  ;  he 


36 


BISHOP  HEBER 


is  said,  above  all,  to  be  active  and  attentive  to  his  peculiar  duties ; 
he  is  neither  a  fiddler,  a  poet,  a  chemist,  nor  a  philosopher,  but 
contents  himself  with  being  an  emperor.  His  person,  to  judge 
by  his  busts  and  statues,  is  tall  and  strongly  built  ;  his  complexion 
fair  and  pale  ;  his  hair  light,  and  his  face  full  and  round.  1  have 
been  anxious  to  give  you  some  general  idea  of  this  amiable 
man,  in  whose  character  and  conduct  Europe  is  so  deeply 
interested.  .  .  . 

"  I  write  but  little  on  politics,  partly  because  Petersburg,  from 
its  remoteness,  is  out  of  the  current  of  news  almost  as  much  as 
England  ;  and  partly  because  I  do  not  choose  to  submit  all  my 
political  observations  to  the  chance  of  an  inspection  at  the  post 
office,  which  sometimes  happens  in  England  as  well  as  on  the 
Continent.  The  war  here  is  popular,  and  the  people  profess  them- 
selves, and  I  believe  really  arc,  friendly  to  the  English  cause  and 
nation.  If  anything  could  have  diminished  this  feeling,  it  would 
have  been,  I  think,  the  inactivity  of  the  arms  of  Great  Britain 
during  the  present  coalition  ;  to  the  want  of  a  timely  diversion  in 
that  quarter,  there  are  many  who  are  fond  of  attributing  the 
dreadful  calamities  which  have  befallen  Austria  ;  and  though  the 
presence  of  Englishmen  was  always  a  restraint,  I  have  repeatedly 
been  made  half-mad  by  witnessing  the  deep  and  general  indigna- 
tion at  the  conduct  of  the  ministry  ;  a  conduct  which  I  have  often 
endeavoured  to  defend,  at  least  as  far  as  the  general  character  of 
the  country  was  at  stake.  You  will  likewise  soon  see  the  curious 
effect  which  this  produced  on  the  terms  of  a  late  ofiered  negotia- 
tion. Thank  God,  the  victory  of  Trafalgar,  followed  up  by  the 
arrival  of  General  Don  at  Cuxhax  en,  has  turned  the  scale  in  our 
favour,  and  the  destruction  of  Boulogne,  of  w  hich  we  are  in  daily 
hopes  to  hear,  will  give  new  spirits  to  the  friends  of  England,  and 
of  what  is  emphatically  called  '  the  good  cause.'  Pitt  is,  I  believe, 
thought  highly  of  here,  though  his  late  inactivity  staggered  their 
good  opinion.  The  news  from  the  Russian  army  continues  com- 
fortable to  Europe  and  glorious  to  Russia.  Bragration,  of  whose 
exploits  you  have  heard,  is  a  very  remarkable  character ;  he  is  a 
Georgian  by  birth,  and  chief  of  one  of  the  tribes  of  Mount 
Caucasus  ;  he  was  a  favourite  of  Suwarof,  and  acquired  great 
reputation  in  Italy." 

What  was  the  "  sun  of  Austerlitz  "  for  Napoleon  set  in  gloom 
for  the  Allies  in  the  armistice  of  the  6th  December  1805. 
Heber  thus  pictures  the  effect  in  Russia : — 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  37 


"  Petersburg. 

"My  dear  Mother  —  As  ill  news  flies  always  swift,  you 
are,  no  doubt,  by  this  time  as  perfectly  acquainted  with  the 
dreadful  calamities  which  have  befallen  Europe  as  we  can  be  in 
Petersburg.  Here,  indeed,  news  is  slowly  and  obscurely  com- 
municated to  the  public,  and  all  the  information  that  has  yet 
l)een  given  has  merely  transpired  through  private  channels.  The 
loss  on  the  side  of  the  Russians  is,  we  are  assured,  much  less 
than  was  at  first  reported  ;  their  courage  and  conduct  appear 
unimpeached  ;  it  can  scarcely  be  believed,  what  I  have  myself 
heard  from  one  of  the  emperor's  aidcs-dc-cainp,  that  while  both 
Austrians  and  French  wanted  nothing,  the  Russians  were  without 
provisions  for  above  four-and-twcnty  hours  ;  and  that  when  the 
Emperor  Alexander  was  taken  very  seriously  ill,  and  sent  to  his 
brother  of  Austria  for  a  bottle  of  wine,  it  was,  after  a  long  treaty, 
refused  him.  .  .  . 

"  Both  Alexander  and  Constantino  distinguished  themselves 
greatly  ;  the  latter,  it  is  said,  for  nothing  certain  is  known,  is 
wounded.  The  emperor  has  been  requested,  since  his  return,  to 
assume  the  military  order  of  .St.  George,  which  he  had  never 
taken  before,  always  professing  to  defer  it  till  he  had  earned  his 
spurs.  Even  now  he  replied  with  much  modesty  that  the  first 
class,  or  great  cross,  was  destined  for  great  conquerors  or 
generals  ;  that  he  had  himself  done  little  more  than  most  officers 
in  his  army,  and  should  not  assume  a  higher  rank  than  a  chevalier 
of  the  third  class.  .  .  . 

"  In  consequence  of  the  peace  which  Austria  has  made,  and 
the  subsequent  withdrawal  of  the  Russian  troops,  the  emperor  has 
been  some  days  returned  to  Petersburg  ;  we  were,  of  course, 
eager  to  see  him,  and  were  fortunate  enough  to  have  several 
opportunities.  His  arri\al  was  perfectly  sudden  and  unex- 
pected ;  he  was  at  Gatchina,  thirty  miles  from  hence,  before  his 
setting  out  from  the  army  was  known,  and  arrived  in  Petersburg 
about  five  in  the  morning  ;  his  first  visit  was  paid  to  the  Cathedral 
of  Our  Lady  of  Casan,  where  he  spent  some  time  in  prayer  ;  he 
then  joined  his  wife  and  mother  at  the  palace.  The  people,  in 
the  meantime,  assembled  in  prodigious  crowds  before  the  gate  ; 
and  when,  about  half-past  nine,  he  came  out  to  inspect  the  guard, 
the  whole  mob  gave  one  of  the  most  tremendous  and  universal 
shouts  which  I  ever  heard  ;  they  thronged  round  him,  kissing  his 
hands,  his  boots  and  clothes,  with  an  enthusiasm  which  perfectly 
disregarded  the  threats  and  cudgels  of  the  police  officers.  .Some 


38 


BISHOP  HEBER 


men  were  telling  their  beads  and  crossing  themselves ;  others, 
with  long  black  beards,  crying  and  blubbering  like  children,  and 
the  whole  scene  was  the  most  affecting  picture  of  joy  which  I 
ever  saw.  When  he  was  at  length  disengaged  he  went  along  the 
line,  each  company  as  he  passed  giving  him  the  deep-toned  short 
cheer,  which  is  their  customary  morning  exclamation,  '  Bless  you, 
Alexander  Povlovitz.'  .  .  . 

"  The  emperor  is  not  the  only  sight  we  have  seen,  having 
been  at  court,  and  at  a  grand  religious  ceremony  of  the  Tartars. 
We  have  as  yet  only  been  to  court  as  spectators,  as  there  is,  at 
present,  no  English  ambassador  here  to  introduce  us  ;  but  having 
a  recommendation  to  the  master  of  the  ceremonies,  he  veiy 
kindly  gave  us  an  opportunity  of  seeing  everything  to  the  best 
advantage,  and  introduced  us  to  a  gentleman  who  explained  their 
religious  ceremonies,  for  all  the  levees  and  drawing-rooms  begin 
with  service  in  the  chapel.  On  our  first  entrance  into  the  room 
we  found  it  full  of  officers  and  foreign  ministers,  who  ranged 
themselves  in  two  lines  for  the  empress  to  pass  through  from  the 
inner  room,  followed  by  all  her  ladies,  to  the  chapel  ;  at  the  upper 
end  stood  the  senators  and  officers  of  the  State,  then  the  rest  of 
the  spectators,  and  the  lower  end  of  the  room  was  occupied  by 
Cossak  officers,  wild,  savage-looking  fellows,  whose  long  black 
hair,  bare  necks,  long  flowing  garments  and  crooked  scimitars 
formed  a  striking  contrast  with  the  bags  and  powdered  wigs  of 
the  rest  of  the  party.  The  chapel  was  crowded,  and  the  singing 
the  most  beautiful  I  ever  heard  ;  no  musical  instruments  are 
allowed  by  the  Greek  Church,  and  never  was  more  delightful 
harmony  produced  by  vocal  performers.  The  effect  was  very- 
grand  when  the  singing  suddenly  ceased,  and  the  vast  folding 
doors  of  the  sanctuary  were  thrown  open,  and  the  gilded  altar 
and  the  priests  (who  are  all  selected  for  their  beards  and  stature) 
were  discovered  amid  a  cloud  of  incense.  During  the  service  the 
empress  stood  on  a  step  in  the  middle  of  the  aisle,  as  no  seats  are 
allowed  by  the  Greeks  in  their  churches.  But  little  attention 
was  paid  to  the  service  by  the  greater  part  of  the  audience,  though 
some  continued  bowing  and  crossing  themselves  the  whole  time. 
After  the  bishop  had  given  the  final  blessing,  I  was  surprised  to 
see  the  beautiful  young  empress,  for  I  really  think  her  very  much 
so,  kiss  his  hand,  which  he  returned  on  her  hand  and  cheek  ;  and 
his  example  was  followed  by  the  whole  tribe  of  ecclesiastics,  a 
race  of  as  dirty  monks  as  ever  ate  salt  fish.  The  English  clergy 
will,  I  fear,  never  be  able  to  obtain  a  privilege  like  this. 

"  The  other  ceremony  I  mentioned  was  the  commencement  of 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  39 


the  month  Ramadan,  or  Mahommedan  Lent,  and  was  chiefly 
remarkable  for  its  novelty,  and  for  the  number  of  the  followers 
of  Mahomet  among  the  lower  classes  of  Petersburg.  It  must 
also  be  observed  that  they  were  the  most  decent,  attentive  con- 
gregation that  I  have  seen  since  I  left  England.  The  cere- 
mony was  performed  in  the  great  hall  of  the  palace  (now  deserted 
and  almost  ruined)  which  Paul  built,  and  where  his  life  was 
terminated.  ...  I  little  thought  I  should  hear  the  Alcoran  read, 
or  be  dinned  by  exclamations  of  Allah,  Allah  Acbar.  This  is 
indeed  the  only  sight  of  Mahommedan  manners  which,  in  all 
probability,  I  shall  ever  have,  as,  unless  very  good  news  comes, 
we  shall  certainly  not  think  of  Constantinople,  but  return  much 
sooner  than  we  at  first  intended  to  our  respective  Volunteers.  Pray 
commend  me  to  the  Hodnet  company,  and  tell  them  I  am  doing 
my  utmost  to  gain  information  which  may  be  useful  to  them,  if 
they  are  ever  brought  into  action  ;  and  that  the  more  I  see  of 
the  miserable  state  of  Europe,  I  am  the  more  convinced  that 
Englishmen  will  shortly  have  to  depend  on  their  own  patriotism 
and  their  own  bayonets.  Hostilities  are  indeed  a  dreadful  subject 
to  occupy  our  letters  and  our  conversation,  and  woe  to  the  man 
who  can  view  them  with  indifference  !  Russia,  I  believe,  is  firm, 
but  Russia  is  herself  in  the  greatest  danger." 

Accompanied  by  Sir  Daniel  Bayley,  afterwards  the  British 
Consul-General,  Heber  and  Thornton  drove  to  Moscow  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  year,  1806.  The  city,  which  he  describes 
as  a  vast  oval  covering  as  much  ground  as  London  and  West- 
minster at  that  time,  even  the  Kremlin,  that  embodiment  of 
the  Asiatic  origin  and  destiny  of  the  Russians,  were  burned  to 
the  ground  six  years  after.  Heber  revelled  in  the  unique 
city  and  its  fortress,  declaring  "  there  is  no  place  in  Europe 
more  likely  to  detain  a  traveller."  There,  and  on  visits  to 
the  great  Troitza  monastery,  "the  Oxford  of  Russia,"  and 
to  the  joint  establishment  of  Befania,  where  Archbishop  Plato 
received  him,  and  to  the  towns  of  Volga,  Rostof,  Yaroslav,  and 
Kostroma,  the  two  tourists  spent  more  than  two  months  of 
the  Russian  winter.  Lord  Stuart  de  Rothesay,^  at  that  time 
Secretary  of  Legation,  who  had  just  returned  to  Petersburg 
from  Hungary,  reported  that  the  French  had  evacuated 
Germany,  that  Sir  Arthur  Paget  had  returned  to  Vienna,  and 

1  Then  Mr.  Stuart,  afterwards  father  of  Lady  Canning  and  Lady  Water- 
ford. 


40 


BISHOP  HEBER 


that  an  Englishman  might  go  through  any  part  of  the  country 
with  perfect  security.  Heber  thus  wrote  to  his  brother 
Richard  : — 

"  Moscow,  24//^  February  1806. 
"  My  dear  Brother — In  my  last  letter  I  said  something 
disrespectful  of  the  beauty  of  the  Moscow  ladies,  which,  now  that 
I  have  got  more  into  their  society,  I  must  contradict ;  it  is  the 
only  place  since  I  left  England  where  I  have  met  with  a  really 
interesting  female  society,  and  at  the  assemblies  of  the  nobles  we 
see  many  faces  that  might  be  supposed  to  belong  to  Lancashire 
or  Cheshire.  Of  their  hospitality  you  may  judge,  when  I  say  that 
I  have  only  dined  once  at  home  since  our  arrival,  and  then  we 
had  an  invitation  which  we  declined.  Of  instruction  to  be  acquired 
at  Moscow  I  can  give  but  a  moderate  account  ;  there  are  verj' 
few  people  who  think  at  all,  and  of  these  few  many  think  amiss. 
To  Maffai,  the  librarian  of  the  sacred  synod,  we  have  been  promised 
introductions,  but  his  health  is  so  infirm  that  he  can  rarely  see 
strangers.  We  have,  however,  made  one  distinguished  literary 
acquaintance  in  the  person  of  the  Archbishop  Plato,  with  whom 
we  passed  a  day  at  his  convent  at  Troitza,  about  forty  miles  from 
Moscow.  We  found  him  a  fine  cheerful  old  man,  with  a  white 
beard  floating  over  his  breast.  He  asked  us  many  questions 
about  Person,  and  on  finding  we  knew  him,  showed  us  his  Greek 
books,  which  were  not  very  numerous,  and  consisting  entirely  of 
the  Fathers  ;  he  made  us  construe  a  page  of  St.  Chrysostom's 
litany,  which  put  us  into  his  good  graces,  and  he  insisted  on  our 
dining  and  passing  the  day  with  him.  He  speaks  tolerable  French 
and  Latin,  but  Greek  more  readily  than  either." 

To  his  mother,  anxious  for  his  safety  and  more  speedy  return, 
Heber  replied  that  Thornton  and  he  had  given  up  their  plan 
for  visiting  Athens,  Constantinople,  and  Italy. 

"iSIosCGW,  yd  March  1806. 

"...  We  have  been  employing  this  leisure  in  a  close 
application  to  German,  a  knowledge  of  which  is  a  sine  qua  no7i  to 
our  schemes.  The  weather  is  already  beginning  to  change  ;  and 
farther  south,  everj'thing,  we  are  told,  is  green  and  flower)', 
which  not  a  little  increases  our  eagerness  to  be  gone.  On  Mon- 
day, then,  '  twenty  adieus,  my  frozen  Moscovites  '  (though  their 
climate  is  the  only  thing  that  we  have  found  frozen  about  them. 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  41 


and  that  has  been,  generally  speaking,  very  tolerable).  Our  first 
push  is  for  Tcherkask,  the  capital  of  the  Cossaks,  where  we  hope 
to  arrive  in  a  fortnight  ;  we  shall  then  run  through  the  Crimea  to 
Odessa,  and  by  Kamirici  and  Lemberg,  to  Vienna,  where  we  shall 
arrive  by  the  first  of  June.  The  detour  of  the  Crimea  we  are 
induced  to  take  as  a  sort  of  substitute  for  Greece  and  Italy  ;  and 
in  this  country  travelling  is  so  rapid  that  a  small  increase  of  distance 
would  not  induce,  or  even  justify  us,  in  relinquishing  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  interesting  countries  in  the  world,  and  where 
we  need  apprehend  neither  plague,  nor  French,  nor  banditti. 
There  is  likewise  this  advantage  in  our  getting  to  Vienna  a  month 
later,  that  we  allow  full  time  for  the  Austrian  territories  to  get 
tranquillised,  and  shall  be  at  Odessa  in  the  best  possible  situation 
for  getting  advice  and  intelligence.  Compare  this  with  our 
immediate  return  through  the  sands  of  Poland  and  Brandenburg, 
and  I  am  sure  you  will  not  wonder  at  our  choice,  especially  as  we 
shall  be  in  England,  at  the  latest,  by  the  beginning  of  October, 
having  completed  the  tour  of  the  northern  and  midland  parts  of 
Europe.  .  .  . 

"  Poor  Pitt !  We  have  just  received  the  news  of  his  death, 
which  has  caused  great  sorrow  to  the  English  and  the  friends  of 
England,  who  are  here  very  numerous,  especially  among  the  old 
ministers  of  Catherine,  the  Orlofs,  the  Ostermans,  etc.  At  Count 
Osterman's  house  we  are  intimate,  and  dine  there  once  or  twice  in 
a  week  ;  he  is  a  very  fine,  interesting  old  man.  Count  Ale.xis 
Orlof  we  have  also  been  presented  to,  and  have  been  at  his  ball  ; 
but  unfortunately  he  does  not  speak  French.  .  .  .  His  daughter, 
a  pleasing  but  not  beautiful  girl  of  about  eighteen,  who  sings,  plays, 
dances,  rides,  hunts,  speaks  French,  English,  and  German,  all 
to  perfection,  is,  for  these  accomplishments,  as  well  as  for  the 
additional  one  of  being  heiress  to  about  400,000  rubles  a  year, 
the  '  cynosure  of  Russian  eyes.'  Her  father,  like  the  other  Russian 
nobles,  keeps  a  most  immense  establishment,  having  a  family  of 
about  five  hundred  persons,  and  at  least  two  or  three  hundred 
horses.  Indeed,  the  Eastern  retinues  and  luxuries  which  one 
meets  with  here  are  almost  beyond  belief.  There  are  few  English 
countesses  have  so  many  pearls  in  their  possession  as  I  have  seen 
in  the  streets  in  the  cap  of  a  merchant's  wife.  At  a  ball  in  the 
ancient  costume  which  was  given  by  M.  Nelidensky  (secretary  of 
state  to  the  late  empress,  whose  family  we  have  found  the  most 
agreeable  in  Moscow),  the  ladies  all  wore  caps  entirely  of  pearls, 
and  the  blaze  of  diamonds  on  their  saraphans  (the  ancient  Russian 
tunic)  would  have  outshone,  I  think,  St.  James's.     The  pearl 


42 


BISHOP  HEBER 


bonnet  is  not  a  becoming  dress,  as  it  makes  its  wearer  look  very 
pale,  a  fault  which  some  ladies  had  been  evidently  endeavouring 
to  obviate.  In  general,  however,  this  is  not  a  very  prevailing 
practice  in  Moscow,  in  which  respect,  as  well  as  in  every  other, 
its  ladies  have  an  infinite  advantage  over  those  of  Petersburg. 
The  jewels  are  brought  here,  for  the  most  part,  by  Armenian 
merchants,  or  Tartars  from  Samarkand  and  Bokhara,  who  have 
from  the  earliest  ages  been  the  carriers  of  the  East.  They  bring 
into  Russia  shawls,  herons'  plumes,  attar  of  roses,  jewels,  and 
other  Indian  and  Cashmerian  productions,  which  bring  them  an 
immense  profit.  Their  wanderings,  which  extend  from  Poland 
to  Ava  and  Mysore,  often  last  several  years,  and  must  be  wonder- 
fully interesting  to  any  hardy  European  who  might  venture  to 
accompany  them.  Some  of  the  Armenians  are  very  wealthy  ; 
one  of  them,  named  Lazarof,  gave,  during  our  stay  in  Moscow,  a 
magnificent  fete,  to  which  we  procured  an  invitation,  and  met 
almost  all  the  great  people  in  the  place.  Next  to  the  Georgians, 
they  are  the  handsomest  people  I  have  ever  seen. 

"Alas  for  Pitt  ! — neither  balls  nor  belles  can  drive  him  out  of 
my  head  ! " 

The  homeward  tour  thus  planned  was  substantially  carried 
out.  At  Taganrog,  at  the  head  of  the  Sea  of  Azof,  Heber 
received  from  Madame  Cashparof,  daughter  of  the  Armenian 
Lazarof,  who  was  the  first  possessor  of  the  famous  Orlof 
diamond,  this  account  of  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society's 
early  work  among  the  Musalman  Tartars  : — 

"  Madame  Cashparof  gave  us  several  particulars  respecting  the 
Scotch  missionaries  at  Georgiessk  ;  they  are  to  the  number  of 
thirty,  men  and  women.  The  principal  person  among  them  is 
named  Brunton,!  whom  she  described  as  a  man  of  abilities,  and,  in 


'  Henry  Brunton  was,  with  Peter  Greig,  the  first  missionary  from  Scotland 
sent  out  to  West  Africa  by  tlie  Edinburgh  Society,  founded  in  1796.  After 
Greig's  martyrdom  by  the  Susoos  near  Sierra  Leone,  he  returned,  and  in  1802 
sailed  from  Leith,  along  with  Mr.  A.  Paterson,  to  found  a  mission  to  the  Tartars 
between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian.  The  enlightened  Czar  Alexander 
and  his  Minister,  Prince  Galitzin,  gladly  gave  the  mission  lands  as  a  Scottish 
colony,  and  encouraged  their  toilsome  work  of  translating  the  Scriptures  and 
civilising  the  Kabardians,  who  were  often  at  war.  Just  after  Heber  left 
Moscow,  Mr.  Mitchell,  one  of  the  staff,  visited  Petersburg  to  arrange  very 
liberal  conditions  for  the  colony.  So  long  as  only  ransomed  slaves  were 
baptized  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church  was  silent,  but  when  Mohammed  Ali. 
son  of  the  old  Kazi  of  Derbend,  was  converted  to  Christ,  the  priests  demanded 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  43 


particular,  as  possessing  great  power  of  acquiring  languages.  He 
had  made  very  extraordinary  progress  in  the  Russian  and  Cir- 
cassian tongues  ;  had  been  in  many  parts  of  the  world  as  mission- 
ary ;  and  had  with  him  a  young  negro,  whom  he  represented  to 
be  the  son  of  an  African  king,  who  had  entrusted  him  to  his  care 
for  education.  They  had  suffered  greatly  by  disease  and  the 
dearness  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  were  kept  in  frequent 
alarm  by  the  Tcherkesses,  on  whom  their  labours  had  produced 
very  little  effect.  Madame  Cashparof  spoke  of  this  little  colony, 
particularly  of  Brunton  and  a  Mr.  I'atcrson,  with  much  praise, 
both  of  their  industry  and  respectable  character.  Georgiessk  is 
about  seven  hundred  versts  from  Tchcrkask  ;  it  is  in  a  magnificent 
situation  at  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus  ;  near  it  are  the  famous  hot 
baths.  The  Circassians  of  the  horde  of  Little  Kabarda  are  allied 
with  Russia,  but  those  of  the  other  tribes  are  mostly  hostile." 

Thus,  for  the  second  time,  the  future  missionary  bishop  was 
brought  close  to  that  great  enterprise  in  which  he  was  to  lay 
down  his  life.  Heber's  personal  study  of  the  people  during 
this  tour  in  the  Crimea  led  him  to  devote  much  time  to  the 
preparation  of  a  History  of  tlie  Cossaks,  which  his  appoint- 
ment to  Calcutta  prevented  him  from  completing.  The 
unfinished  work,  which  appeared  after  his  death,  brings  the 
history  down  to  the  year  1535,  when  the  Cossaks  assumed 
the  appearance  and  tone  of  a  regular  and  independent  republic 
along  the  Ukraine  or  "border"  land,  and  were  first  courted 
by  their  neighbours,  both  Russians  and  Poles.  It  is  curious 
to  read  in  a  journal  written  in  1806  descriptions  of  Sebastopol,^ 
Balaklava,  and  Eupatoria  so  sadly  familiar  in  the  war  half  a 
century  after.  At  Perekop  Heber  noted  that  it  was  with  great 
regret  they  quitted  the  Crimea  and  its  pleasing  inhabitants. 

that  they  should  baptize  him.  The  Mission  charter  was  interpreted  by  the 
Emperor  and  Galitzin  as  "authorising  the  missionaries  to  receive  by  holy 
baptism  all  who  were  converted  to  the  Lord  through  their  instrumentality, " 
Imt  when  Nicholas  succeeded  Alexander,  intolerance  drove  the  Scots  Mission 
out  of  Russia.     See  Short  History  of  Missions,  p.  174  of  4th  ed. 

'  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  R.  W.  Hay,  an  old  college  companion,  and  afterwards 
Under  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  wlio  was  about  to  make  a  tour 
similar  to  his  own,  Heber  thus  referred  to  Sebastopol  :  "At  Sel)astopol  is  a 
most  execrable  ale-house  kept  Ijy  an  Italian,  which  is,  however,  the  best  in 
the  place.  The  people  you  ought  to  know  here  are  General  Bardakof,  one 
of  the  cleverest  fellows  in  the  empire,  and  Messer,  an  English  post-captain  ; 
there  is  also  Prince  Wiasemsky,  a  relation  of  our  old  friend  at  Petersburg. 
Do  not  omit  to  see  Inkerman  and  Chersonesus. " 


44 


BISHOP  HEBER 


At  the  next  stage  of  Cherson,  on  the  way  to  Odessa,  Heber 
received  this  information  from  a  Scotsman  named  Geddes 
regarding  the  philanthropist  Howard,  who,  when  on  his 
last  benevolent  journey  to  Constantinople,  had  died  there 
when  ministering  to  a  fever-stricken  girl  sixteen  years  before, 
exclaiming,  "  Give  me  no  monument,  but  lay  me  quietly  in 
the  earth ;  place  a  sundial  over  my  grave,  and  let  me  be  for- 
gotten." His  dust  now  lies  near  the  village  of  Dauphigny,  on 
the  road  to  St.  Nicolas,  and  his  statue  is  in  St.  Paul's,  London. 

"The  tomb  of  Howard  is  in  the  desert,  about  a  mile  from  the 
town  ;  it  was  built  by  Admiral  Mordvinof,  and  is  a  small  brick 
pyramid,  whitewashed,  but  without  any  inscription  ;  he  himself 
fixed  on  the  spot  of  his  interment.  He  had  built  a  small  hut  on 
this  part  of  the  steppe,  where  he  passed  much  of  his  time,  as  being 
the  most  healthy  spot  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  English  burial- 
service  was  read  over  him  by  Admiral  Priestman,  from  whom  I 
had  these  particulars.  Two  small  villas  have  Ijeen  built  at  no 
great  distance,  I  suppose,  also,  from  the  healthiness  of  the  situa- 
tion, as  it  has  nothing  else  to  recommend  it.  Howard  was  spoken 
of  with  exceeding  respect  and  affection  by  all  who  remembered  or 
knew  him  ;  and  they  were  many." 

Poland  delighted  Heber  : — 

"  No  part  of  Ancient  Russia,  that  I  have  seen,  except,  perhaps, 
some  part  of  the  province  of  Yaroslav,  can  at  all  compare  in 
fertility  or  beauty  with  her  Polish  acquisitions.  Not  the  banks  of 
the  Volga,  nor  even  the  Crimea  itself,  have  anything  like  the  oak 
woods  and  corn-fields  of  Podolia.  The  difference  which  principally 
struck  us  was  in  the  appearance  of  the  houses  and  towns,  the 
paved  and  narrow  streets,  the  crucifixes  by  the  roadside,  the 
monasteries,  the  Latin  inscriptions,  and  the  other  marks  of  a 
different  religion,  and  habits  more  nearly  approaching  the  rest  of 
Europe.  .  .  . 

"  The  country  which  has  fallen  to  the  share  of  Austria  is  more 
picturesque  and  more  populous  than  that  of  Russia,  but  apparently 
not  so  fertile.  Both  would,  however,  be  called  fertile  and  beauti- 
ful in  the  richest  part  of  England." 

Of  the  land  of  the  Magyars  he  wrote  : — 

"  There  are  few  countries  where  an  Englishman  could  obtain 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  45 


so  much  important  information  as  in  Hungary,  the  constitution  of 
the  government  of  which  is  a  complete  comment  on  the  ancient 
principles  of  our  own,  as  low  down  as  Edward  the  Third.  All 
that  I  have  been  able  to  do  in  this  point,  except  a  little  conversa- 
tion, is  to  get  the  names  of  the  best  historians,  and  of  law  books, 
which  I  shall  still  have  opportunities  of  consulting,  and  which 
are  all  in  Latin.  .  .  .  This  language  is,  from  various  reasons 
(particularly  that  every  parish  has  a  school),  almost  vernacular  in 
Hungary  ;  among  the  better  and  middling  classes  it  is  the  most 
usual  language  ;  and  even  many  of  the  peasants  speak  it  fluently. 
In  this  point,  and  in  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  Scotland 
itself,  perhaps,  falls  short  of  Hungary.  .  .  .  The  roads,  indeed, 
are  very  like  those  of  Shropshire  or  Cheshire  ;  but  the  horses  and 
inns  are  excellent ;  and  the  whole  country  displays  a  wealth  and 
population  far  superior  to  all  which  we  have  yet  seen  out  of 
England.  The  market  towns  and  boroughs,  with  their  town  halls, 
whipping-posts,  and  gallows,  things  little  known  on  the  Continent, 
are  exactly  in  the  style  of  building  which  we  see  in  Hogarth's 
prints.  Like  England,  Hungary  still  shows  everywhere  the  deep 
scars  of  her  former  civil  disturbances.  Every  county  town  has 
its  ruined  walls  ;  and  the  hills,  particularly  the  Carpathian 
mountains,  are  full  of  castles,  the  ruins  of  which  are  sometimes 
very  fine." 

"  Vienna,  dth  July  1806. 
"  My  DE.A.R  Mother — .  .  .  Sir  Arthur  Paget  and  his  secre- 
taries are  still  here,  which  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  for  us, 
as  our  letters  are  addressed  to  them.  .  .  .  The  French  troops 
appear  to  have  behaved  with  great  moderation  while  in  Vienna  ; 
but,  though  private  property  has  been  respected,  the  state  has 
been  terribly  plundered  ;  and  a  season  of  great  scarcity  having 
accompanied  the  other  misfortunes,  the  necessary  purchase  of 
corn  has  contributed  still  more  to  drain  the  country  of  treasure, 
which  they  seem  to  have  but  scanty  means,  at  present,  of  replac- 
ing ;  their  paper  is  at  fifty  per  cent  discount." 

"Dresden,  20th  Augusl  1806. 
"  My  DEAR  Mother — .  .  .  We  left  Vienna  very  melancholy  ; 
every  day  new  encroachments  and  menaces  of  Buonaparte,  in- 
creased depreciation  of  the  public  credit,  and  fresh  proofs  of  the 
weakness  and  timidity  of  the  government  were  talked  of  w  ith  a 
sort  of  stupid  despair,  which  seemed  as  if  the  people  had  ceased  to 


46 


BISHOP  HEBER 


care  for  what  they  could  no  longer  prevent.  The  English  were 
very  popular,  and  the  French  most  warmly  detested,  to  which  the 
excessive  insolence  of  Andreossi  and  Rochefoucalt,the  ambassadors, 
very  much  conduced.  The  army  were  longing  for  war,  but  the 
people  had  lost  all  hopes  except  of  tranquillity  for  a  month  or  two 
longer.  The  seizure  of  Gradesca  was  known  the  night  before  we 
left  Vienna,  and  it  was  just  announced  that  the  Roman  empire 
was  at  an  end.  While  these  usurpations  were  going  on,  the  French 
troops  in  Bavaria  kept  menacing  their  frontier,  and  Andreossi's 
threats  were,  it  is  said,  excessively  violent  and  vulgar.  Such  is 
the  state  of  the  country  with  a  population  of  22,000,000,  an  army 
of  350,000  highly-disciplined  troops,  and  with  a  general  like  the 
Archduke  Charles !  You  will,  of  course,  wish  to  know  what 
causes  have  brought  them  so  low,  as  the  loss  of  a  few  battles  is 
quite  insufficient  to  produce  such  terrible  effects.  They  themselves 
all  agree  in  saying  that  it  was  the  peace  of  Presburg  which  ruined 
them  ;  and  that  if  the  government  had  been  more  patient  and 
courageous,  the  most  unsuccessful  war  would  have  been  better 
than  such  a  capitulation.  But  besides  the  cowardice  of  the 
emperor,  the  dreadful  state  of  their  finances,  the  broken  spirit  of 
their  troops,  and  the  total  want  of  confidence  between  the  sovereign 
and  the  people  were  perhaps  sufficient  reasons.  The  troops  are 
indeed  very  fine  fellows,  but  their  misery  is  great.  .  .  . 

"  Of  Buonaparte's  conduct  and  appearance  many  interesting 
particulars  were  to  be  learnt.  Nothing  struck  me  more  than  his 
excessive  hatred  of  England  and  Russia,  particularly  the  former. 
For  the  Austrians  he  only  expressed  contempt,  and  that  galling 
pity  which  is  worse  and  more  intolerable  than  the  bitterest  insult. 
But  whenever  he  spoke  of  England  (and  he  seldom  spoke  of  any- 
thing else),  it  was,  in  the  words  of  my  informant,  Count  Purgstall, 
who,  from  his  situation,  was  constantly  with  Buonaparte,  'like 
Haman  speaking  of  Mordecai  the  Jew.'  All  the  Austrians  joined 
in  saying  that  the  only  hope  of  safety  for  England  was  in  a 
continuance  of  the  war,  and  I  was  perfectly  of  the  same  opinion. 
God  grant  Lord  Lauderdale  a  speedy  and  unsuccessful  return 
from  Paris. 

"  From  Vienna  we  went  to  Briinn,  and  passed  a  whole  day  in 
tracing  out  and  drawing  plans  of  the  battle  of  Austerlitz.  Except 
a  few  skeletons  of  horses,  and  a  few  trees  which  have  been  shivered 
by  bullets,  all  wears  its  ancient  appearance. 

"  '  As  if  these  shades  since  time  was  born, 
Had  only  heard  the  shepherd's  reed, 
Nor  started  at  the  bugle  horn. ' 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  47 


We  had  General  Stutterheim's  account  of  the  battle  in  our  hand, 
and  likewise  drew  much  information  from  a  sensible  farmer  in  the 
village  of  Scholmitz.  All  the  stories  we  had  heard  in  Russia  were 
very  false  ;  and  the  Austrians'  account  of  the  behaviour  of  the 
Russian  troops  equally  so.  The  loss  of  the  battle  is  entirely 
attributable  to  the  scandalous  want  of  information  of  the  Austrians, 
and  to  the  extended  line  on  which  Kotusof  made  the  attack.  The 
French  had  behaved  very  well  till  their  victory,  but  after  it  they 
committed  great  excesses  among  the  villages  ;  the  Russians  were 
popular  among  the  common  people,  which  at  once  proved  the 
falsehood  of  the  scandals  circulated  against  them  at  Vienna.  At 
last,  however,  they  too  were  driven  to  plunder ;  but  it  was  by 
absolute  famine,  owing  to  the  miserable  weakness  of  the  Austrian 
government,  and  the  bad  conduct  of  their  agents.  The  Russians 
understood  the  Moravian  language,  being  only  a  dialect  of  the 
Slavonian  ;  and  this  circumstance  endeared  them  a  good  deal  to 
the  people.  The  loss  of  the  French  on  this  memorable  day  was 
much  greater  than  they  have  been  willing  to  allow.  My  informant 
had  passed  the  morning  after  the  battle  from  Scholmitz  by  Pratzen 
to  Austerlitz.  On  the  hill  of  Pratzen,  he  said,  '  I  could  not  set 
my  foot  to  the  ground  for  blue  uniforms.'  I  drew  three  or  four 
plans  of  the  ground,  and  at  last  succeeded  in  making  a  very  exact 
one.  While  I  was  thus  employed  I  was  taken  for  a  French  spy, 
and  accosted  by  some  farmers,  who  asked,  with  many  apologies, 
for  my  passport.  I  told  them  I  had  none,  and  a  very  curious 
village  council  of  war  was  held,  which  was  terminated  by  the 
arrival  of  Thornton  and  the  guide  we  had  taken  from  Briinn." 

Prague,  Dresden,  Leipzig,  Halle,  and  Wittemberg  followed,  to 
Berlin  :— 

"  Potsdam  is  a  small  but  very  well-built  town  ;  and  Berlin  is 
decidedly,  next  to  Petersburg,  the  finest  city  I  have  ever  seen." 

"Yarmouth,  14//;  October  1806. 
"  Dear  Mother— We  are  this  moment  landed  from  the 
Florence  cutter,  which  Lord  Morpeth,  whom  we  met  at  Hamburg, 
was  so  kind  as  to  give  us  permission  to  make  use  of  We  have 
had  a  very  agreeable  voyage,  and  are  both  well.  I  hope  to  be  at 
Hodnet  Saturday  evening.  Love  to  all  the  dear  party.  We  bring 
no  good  news.  The  king  of  Prussia  and  Buonaparte  were  a  few 
posts  from  each  other,  and  by  this  time  they  have  probably  had 
an  engagement.    The  Elector  of  Hesse  has  refused  all  the  king's 


48 


BISHOP  HEBER 


proposals,  and  is  expected  to  join  the  French. — Behave  me  your 
affectionate  son,  REGINALD  Heber." 

As  Heber  wrote  that  letter  the  battle  of  Jena  was  laying  all 
Prussia  at  Buonaparte's  feet.  The  travellers  landed  to  find 
the  country  in  the  throes  of  a  general  election.  Heber  hastened 
to  Oxford  to  fight  for  his  brother,  who  was  standing  for  the 
University,  while  Thornton  threw  himself  into  the  two  contests 
waged  by  his  father  and  his  uncle,  Henry  Thornton,  M.P.  for 
Southwark.  Heber  thus  reported  to  Miss  Dod  the  lively 
proceedings  at  Oxford  : — 

"  i8  Charles  Street,  St.  James's. 

"  My  dear,  dear  Charlotte  will  perhaps  be  surprised  that  I 
have  not  sooner  thanked  her  for  her  kind  little  note  delivered  at 
the  Llanvridda  Bow -meeting,  especially  when  she  knew  that  I 
was  immediately  setting  out  for  Oxford  and  likely  to  be  alone. 
When  you  know,  however,  how  hard  I  have  been  working  in  my 
brother's  cause,  and  how  many  letters  and  how  much  business 
have  devolved  on  me  as  a  matter  of  absolute  duty  and  necessity, 
you  will,  I  am  sure,  be  far  from  blaming  my  not  having  written 
to  you  before,  nor  be  jealous  that  1  have,  yesterday,  written  to 
your  friend  Mary  Shute.  The  purport  of  my  letter  was  to  ask 
her  interest  with  her  father,  who  has,  I  believe,  a  vote,  and  also 
to  request  her  to  give  us  a  good  word  with  some  other  Somerset- 
shire members  of  the  University.  If  you  write  to  her,  pray  move 
her  to  think  well  of  us.  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  our  canvass 
goes  on  favourably,  and  that,  though  I  am  almost  tired  to  death,  I 
continue  well.  If,  indeed,  one  had  less  heat,  less  anxiety,  and 
less  business  to  do,  the  motley  scenes  of  my  brother's  committees, 
frequented  by  jnany  public  characters  and  literary  men  of  different 
political  parties,  would  be  very  amusing.  We  have  had  Ward, 
Walter  Scott,  Hobhouse  (Lord  Sidmouth's  Secretary,  not  the 
Radical),  Bowles,  the  poet,  Lord  Spencer,  all  the  Williams 
Wynns,  etc.,  in  the  room  at  once.  Great  exertions  are  making  on 
the  other  side,  and  some  abominable  lies  have  been  told.  I  sup- 
pose such  things  are  usual  in  all  elections,  but  the  charges  brought 
against  my  brother  of  being  a  Radical  and  I  know  not  what 
have  made  me  sometimes  very  angry. 

"  I  set  out  for  Hodnet  on  Thursday,  in  company  with  poor 
Mrs.  Shipley,  who  is  very  anxious  to  have  me  as  a  companion  on 
the  road.  She  is  looking  very  ill,  poor  thing,  but  has  borne  her 
return  to  England,  and  the  bitter  recollections  accompanying  it. 


TOUR  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  AUSTERLITZ  AND  JENA  49 


with  true  Christian  fortitude.  I  shall  probably  be  oblijfcd  to 
return  again  to  town  in  another  week,  but  cannot  refuse  under- 
taking this  journey  with  a  poor  invalid,  whose  excellent  conduct 
under  misfortune  I  have  always  admired,  and  whose  relations  are 
now  doing  all  in  their  power  to  forward  my  brother's  interest.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  little  to  tell  you  about  politics.  The  King  certainly 
goes  by  sea.  A  report  prevails  that  his  visit  to  Wynnstay  was 
prevented  by  Lady  Harriet  Wynn's  refusal  to  invite  Lady  Cun- 
ningham.    I  do  not  know  whether  there  is  any  truth  in  this. 

"  God  bless  you  for  ever.  I  can  hardly  say  how  often  I  think 
of  you,  and  how  much  I  value  your  affection  and  wish  for  your 
happiness.     Dear,  dear  friend,  adieu. — Ever  yours, 

"R.  H." 

To  Thornton  he  announced  the  welcome  he  had  received 
at  Hodnet. 

"  Hodnet  Hall,  21st  October  1806. 

"  I  found  all  here  quite  well,  and  my  Volunteers  complete  in 
number,  and  in  high  spirits.  I  have  been  much  delighted  with 
the  kindness  of  my  men  and  neighbours,  and  the  pleasure  they 
have  expressed  at  my  return.  The  farmers  and  people  of  the 
village  have  subscribed  among  themselves  to  purchase  three 
sheep,  and  have  made  a  great  feast  for  the  volunteers,  their  wives 
and  families,  on  the  occasion  of  '  Master  Reginald's  coming  back 
safe.'  It  takes  place  to-day,  and  they  are  now  laying  their  tables 
on  the  green  before  the  house.  I  am  just  going  to  put  on  my 
old  red  jacket  and  join  them.  How  I  do  love  these  good  people  ! 
If  my  friends  had  made  a  feast  for  vie,  it  would  have  been  to  be 
expected  ;  but  that  the  peasants  themselves  should  give  a  fete 
chainpctre  to  their  landlord's  younger  brother  would,  I  think, 
puzzle  a  Russian. 

"  I  wish  you  a  speedy  deliverance  from  the  delights  of  a  can- 
vass, and  a  return  to  your  own  family  and  your  own  people, 
among  the  beech  woods  of  Alljury.  I  hope  yet  to  see  them  on 
some  future  occasion.  Hodnet  is  very  little  altered,  except  that 
the  trees  are  grown.     My  father's  little  oak  is  very  thriving." 

"All  Souls,  1806. 
"  I  have  been  only  three  days  with  my  mother  and  sister  since 
my  return  to  England  ;  since  the  bustle  of  the  election  has  ended 
I  have  been  detained  in  Oxford  by  the  necessity  of  keeping  the 
term. 

E 


50 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"...  With  regard  to  my  studies,  I  am  now  j>ost  varios  casus 
set  down  to  them  again  in  good  earnest,  and  am  so  dehghtfully 
situated  in  All  Souls,  that  the  very  air  of  the  place  breathes  study. 
While  I  write  I  am  enjoying  the  luxuries  of  a  bright  coal  fire,  a 
green  desk,  and  a  tea-kettle  bubbling.  What  should  we  have 
thought  of  such  a  situation  at  Tcherkask  or  at  Taganrog  ? 

"  I  have  just  had  a  very  long  conversation  with  Bishop 
Cleaver  about  orders,  and  the  course  of  study  and  preparation  of 
mind  necessary  for  them.  I  have  kept  myself  entirely  from 
drawing  plans  of  houses,  etc.,  and  though  Guibcrt  siir  la  Grande 
Tactiqiic  unfortunately  seduced  me  a  little  as  he  lay  very  tempt- 
ingly on  my  study  table,  I  have  done  with  him  ;  tactics  are  now, 
indeed,  enough  to  make  a  man  sick.  What  are  our  wise  ministers 
about,  sending  Lord  Hutchinson,  at  this  time  of  day,  to  the  Con- 
tinent ?" 

Next  year,  1807,  Reginald  Heber  was  ordained  and  was 
instituted  by  his  brother  to  the  Rectory  of  Hodnet. 


CHAPTER  IV 


HODNET   I'ARISH   AND   HODNET  FRIENDS 
1S07-1S23 

HoDNET  is  Still,  as  when  Reginald  Heber  spent  there  fifteen 
of  the  happiest  years  of  his  life,  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
parishes  in  England.  From  the  De  Hodenets,  who  held  the 
old  manor  on  condition  of  keeping  in  repair  the  fortress  of 
Montgomery,  the  estate  passed  with  an  heiress  to  the  Vernons, 
and  from  them  similarly  to  the  Hebers.  Hodnet  Hall,  as  it 
now  is,  stands  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  hidden  among  the 
ancient  trees,  save  on  the  northern  face.  In  a  hollow  close 
by  stood  the  old  rectory,  bonded  and  spacious,  like  so  many 
of  the  Shropshire  houses,  but  so  unhealthy  that  Heber's  first 
task  was  to  build  the  new  house  on  the  beautiful  rising  ground 
which  commands  a  view  of  the  country-side.  Between  the 
Hall  and  the  new  rectory  stands  the  church,  on  a  knoll,  with 
a  noble  octagonal  tower.  To  the  south  is  the  valley  of  the 
Tern,  with  memories  of  Richard  Baxter,  who  was  born  at 
Rowton,  five  miles  away  ;  and  of  Corbets,  Leycesters,  and 
Stanleys  clustering  around  the  church  of  Stoke-upon-Tern, 
two  miles  off. 

But  the  charm  of  Hodnet  lies  in  this — that  it  stands 
on  the  eastern  fringe  of  the  sylvan  glories  and  pastoral 
landscapes  of  Hawkstone  Park,  the  famous  seat  of  the 
Hills.  The  parish,  indeed,  chiefly  consists  of  the  Hawkstone 
hills  and  woods,  running  down  into  dairy  farms  and  pictur- 
esque hamlets,  and  all  laid  out  with  the  best  art  of  the  land- 
scape gardener.     For  rides  and  walks,  or  quiet  meditation  ; 


52 


BISHOP  HEBER 


for  simple  rural  beauty  and  pastoral  peace,  no  spot  in  all 
England,  rich  in  such  scenes,  surpasses  Hodnet  and  its  sur- 
roundings. The  late  Lord  Teignmouth,  when  visiting  his 
friend  Lord  Hill  after  Waterloo,  in  the  autumn  of  1815,  wrote  ^ 
of  "  the  rarely  surpassed  grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  scenery 
of  the  ancestral  homes  and  haunts  "  of  the  Hills.  Heber's 
Hodnet  church  stands  at  one  end  of  the  demesne ;  one  of 
his  chapelries  commands  the  other.  From  the  tower  on 
the  ridge  between  these,  fifteen  counties  may  be  seen.  The 
eye  roams  with  ease  from  Llangollen  to  Shrewsbury. 

He  had  just  before  been  a  delighted  witness  of  the  triumph 
of  William  Wilberforce  in  the  House  of  Commons,  when  that 
philanthropic  statesman's  unwearied  assiduity  during  twenty 
years  first  made  it  possible  for  England  to  declare,  "The 
Slave  Trade  is  no  more."  "At  length  divided,  283  to  16," 
writes  Wilberforce  in  his  Diary,  23rd  February  1807.  "A 
good  many  came  over  to  Palace  Yard  after  House  up  and 
congratulated  me.  John  Thornton  and  Heber,  Sharpe,  Mac- 
aulay,  Grant  and  Robert  Grant,  Robert  Bird  and  William 
Smith."  "  Well,  Henry,"  Wilberforce  asked  playfully  of  Mr. 
Thornton,  "  what  shall  we  abolish  next  ?  "  "  The  lottery," 
gravely  replied  his  sterner  friend.  "  Let  us  make  out  the 
names  of  these  sixteen  miscreants ;  I  have  four  of  them,"  said 
William  Smith.  Wilberforce,  kneeling,  as  was  his  wont,  upon 
one  knee  at  the  crowded  table,  looked  up  hastily  from  the 
note  which  he  was  writing — "  Never  mind  the  miserable  1 6, 
let  us  think  of  our  glorious  283." 

This,  wrote  his  son,  the  famous  Bishop  afterwards,^  was 
Reginald  Heber's  first  introduction  to  Mr.  Wilberforce.  He 
had  imagined,  from  his  knowledge  of  the  sentiments  of  the 
Hills  of  Hawkstone,  which  were  at  that  time  disaffected  to 
the  Church  of  England,  that  Wilberforce  shared  these  views, 
and  so  he  entered  the  room  with  a  strong  suspicion  of  the 
statesman's  principles.  The  young  rector  left  it  saying  to  his 
friend,  John  Thornton,  "  How  an  hour's  conversation  can 
dissolve  the  prejudice  of  years  !  "  "  Perhaps,"  writes  Bishop 
Wilberforce,  "  his  witnessing  this  night  the  Christian  hero  in 

'  Reminiscences  of  Many  Years,  vol.  i.  chap.  v.  (Edinburgh,  Da\id 
Douglas). 

-  Tlie  Life  of  Wilberforce,  by  his  Sons,  vol.  iii.  p.  298. 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  53 


his  triumph  after  the  toil  of  years  may  have  been  one  step 
towards  his  gaining  afterwards  the  martyr  crown  at  Trichino- 
poly." 

Reginald  Heber  was  thus  drawn  within  the  influence  of 
the  good  men  and  great  statesmen  to  whom  Great  Britain 
owes  the  reforms  and  the  institutions  which  have  proved  the 
salt  of  the  Empire  as  it  has  gone  on  expanding  over  Southern 
Asia,  Africa,  and  the  present  Colonies.  Although  William 
Pitt  was  their  friend,  and  built  for  them  in  the  leafy  retreat 
of  Claphani  the  library  in  which  they  conferred  for  the  good 
of  humanity,  their  contemporaries  sneered  at  them  as  "  the 
Clapham  Sect,"  till  Sir  James  Stephen  ennobled  the  i)hrase  in 
his  Edinburgh  Review  essay.  In  the  opening  chapters  of 
The  Newcomes  Thackeray's  gentle  satire  pictures  Clapham  and 
its  families,  but  Lord  Macaulay,  who  was  a  child  of  the  Sect, 
used  to  remark  on  his  unfairness.  There  was  "  nothing 
vulgar,  and  little  that  was  narrow  in  a  training  which  produced 
Samuel  ^Vilberforce  and  Sir  James  Stephen,  and  Charles  and 
Robert  Grant,  and  Lord  Macaulay,"  the  biographer  of  the  last 
justly  writes.^  Even  before  1807  Heber  was  a  classic  with 
tiie  Clapham  circle.  Already  when  he  was  six  Tom  Mac- 
aulay's  memory  was  such  that  he  got  the  whole  of  Palestine  by 
heart. In  the  formative  years  before  twenty-five  John 
Thornton  was  the  most  powerful  influence  in  Heber's  char- 
acter and  ideals,  and  John  Thornton  was  a  worthy  grandson 
of  the  merchant  prince  and  evangelical  of  the  same  name 
whose  death  Cowper  commemorated  in  1790 — 
"  Thou  hadst  an  industry  in  doing  good, 
Restless  as  his  who  toils  and  sweats  for  food  ; 

Thy  bounties  were  all  Christian,  and  I  make 
This  record  of  thee  for  the  Gospel's  sake. 
That  the  incredulous  themselves  may  see 
Its  use  and  power  exemplified  in  thee." 

In  such  a  place  and  at  such  a  time  Reginald  Heber  became 
parish  priest.  His  return  to  Oxford  before  taking  orders, 
and  again  for  his  M.A.  degree,  had  renewed  his  popularity 

^  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,  by  his  Nephew  :  second  edition, 
1877,  p.  62. 

-  Teignmouth's  Reminiscences. 


54 


BISHOP  HEBER 


at  the  University.  When  congratulating  his  friend  Thornton 
on  his  marriage,  he  had  said  : — 

"All  Souls,  Ttk  fnly  1807. 
".  .  .  I  liope  you  are  not  in  earnest  when  you  pretend  to 
apologise  for  writing  nonsense  ;  nonsense  is  the  true  and  appro- 
priate language  of  happiness." 

He  himself  was  described  by  a  companion  as  writing  what 
none  but  quiet  and  clever  men  can  write,  very  good  nonsense, 
and  his  mock-heroic  verses  in  Greek  and  Latin  were  famous 
among  the  dons.  Another  contemporary  wrote  thus  of  him 
at  college  :  "  I  cannot  forget  the  feeling  of  admiration  with 
which  I  approached  his  presence,  or  the  surprise  with  which  I 
contrasted  my  abstract  image  of  him  witii  his  own  simple, 
social,  every-day  manner.  He  talked  and  laughed  like  those 
around  him,  and  entered  into  the  pleasures  of  the  day  with 
them,  and  with  tlieir  relish  ;  but  when  any  higher  subject  was 
introduced  [and  he  was  never  slow  in  contriving  to  introduce 
literature  at  least,  and  to  draw  from  his  exhaustless  memory 
riches  of  every  kind]  his  manner  became  his  own.  He  never 
looked  up  at  his  hearers  (one  of  the  few  things,  by  the  bye, 
which  I  could  have  wished  altered  in  him  in  after  life,  for  he 
retained  the  habit),  but  with  his  eyes  downcast  and  fixed, 
poured  forth  in  a  measured  intonation,  which  from  him  became 
fashionable,  stores  of  every  age." 

But  from  the  moment  that  Heber  entered  on  his  calling  as 
a  Cliristian  minister  he  sacrificed  everything  to  its  duties,  and 
his  most  confidential  correspondence  reflected  the  spirituality 
of  his  life,  while  he  was  not  one  whit  less  genial  and  attrac- 
tive than  before.  His  experience  has  been  since  reproduced  in 
that  of  Richard  ^\'.  Church  when  the  future  Dean  of  St.  Paul's 
exchanged  liis  life  at  Oxford  for  the  little  Somersetshire  parish 
of  Whatley.i 

Beginning  his  professional  career  avowedly  as  an  "Arminian," 
Heber  meant  nothing  more  by  that  than  those  stout  Calvinists, 
Carey  and  Fuller,  had  done  in  their  protest  against  the  barren 
hyper-Calvinism  of  the  period,  which  denied  the  Gospel  of 
God's  grace  to  the  majority  of  the  human  race  outside  of 
Christendom.    As  decided  an  anti-Pelagian  as  they,  his  wider 

'  Life  and  Letters  of  Dean  Church  (1894),  p.  139. 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  55 


reading  and  knowledge  of  the  human  lieart  made  him  no  less 
plain  in  his  teaching  on  sin,  while  he  burned,  he  preached,  he 
lectured,  he  wrote,  he  travelled,  he  organised,  he  prayed  with 
the  one  mission  to  bring  to  Christ  the  Crucified  every  sinner  of 
mankind.  He  explicitly  refused  all  through  his  life  to  be 
identilied  with  any  Church  party.  The  term  "  evangelical "  in 
his  day  bore  so  Antinomian  a  tinge,  that  he  disliked  the 
abuse  of  so  good  a  word,  but  if  we  were  to  rank  him  now 
with  any  school  in  particular,  we  should  describe  him  as 
broadly  evangelical.  Heber  will  be  found  growing  in  his 
theological  sympathies,  manifesting  the  best  features  of  cul- 
tured evangelicalism,  and  mellowing  in  charity  towards  Dis- 
senters and  all  good  men  till  his  missionary  experience  carries 
him  outside  of  sect  and  party.  The  following  letters  to  John 
Thornton  reveal  his  spirit  of  self-consecration  and  readiness 
to  learn  God's  will  and  "the  truth,  whatever  it  may  be." 

"7//i  Augmt  1807. 

"  I  purposely  delayed  writing  to  you  till  I  had  had  some  little 
experience  of  my  new  situation  as  parish  priest,  and  my  feelings 
under  it.  With  the  first  I  have  every  reason  to  be  satisfied  ;  my 
feelings  are,  I  believe,  the  usual  ones  of  young  men  who  find 
themselves  entering  into  the  duties  of  a  profession  in  which  their 
life  is  to  be  spent.  I  had  no  new  discoveries  to  make  in  the 
character  of  my  people,  as  I  had  passed  the  greater  part  of  my 
life  among  them.  They  received  me  with  the  same  expressions 
of  good-will  as  they  had  shown  on  my  return  to  England  ;  and  my 
volunteers  and  myself  (for  we  are  still  considered  as  inseparable) 
were  again  invited  to  a  fcle  chainpctrc.  Of  course,  my  first  sermon 
was  numerously  attended  ;  and  though  tears  were  shed,  I  could 
not  attribute  them  entirely  to  my  eloquence,  for  some  of  the  old 
servants  of  the  family  began  crying  before  I  had  spoken  a  word. 
I  will  fairly  own  that  the  cordiality  of  these  honest  people,  which 
at  first  elated  and  pleased  me  exceedingly,  has  since  been  the 
occasion  of  some  very  serious  and  melancholy  reflections.  It  is 
really  an  appalling  thing  to  have  so  high  expectations  formed  of  a 
young  man's  future  conduct.  But  even  this  has  not  so  much 
weight  with  me  as  a  fear  that  I  shall  not  return  their  affection 
sufficiently,  or  preserve  it  in  its  present  extent  by  my  exertions 
and  diligence  in  doing  good.  God  knows  I  have  every  motive  of 
affection  and  emulation  to  animate  me,  and  have  no  possible 


56 


BISHOP  HEBER 


excuse  for  a  failure  in  my  duty.  The  Methodists  in  Hodnet  are, 
thank  God,  not  very  numerous,  and  I  hope  to  diminish  them  still 
more  ;  they  are,  however,  sufficiently  numerous  to  sene  as  a  spur 
to  my  emulation." 

Twenty  months  later,  when  informing  Thornton  that  he 
had  sent  to  the  press  his  poem  Europe,  begun  at  Dresden 
during  a  night  made  sleepless  by  the  march  of  the  troops  to 
meet  the  French,  he  thus  answers  his  friend's  inquiries  as  to 
his  parish  : — 

"  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  both  my  conduct  and  my 
sermons  are  well  liked,  but  I  do  not  think  any  great  amendment 
takes  place  in  my  hearers.  My  congregations  are  very  good,  and 
the  number  of  communicants  increases.  The  principal  faults  of 
which  I  have  to  complain  are  occasional  drunkenness  and,  after 
they  have  left  church,  a  great  disregard  of  Sunday.  You  know 
my  notions  respecting  the  obligation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  are 
by  no  means  strict ;  but  I  ha\  e  seen  much  mischief  arise  from 
its  neglect,  and  have  been  taking  some  pains  to  prevent  it.  By 
the  assistance,  I  may  say  advice,  of  one  of  the  churchwardens,  a 
very  worthy  and  sensible,  though  plain  farmer,  the  shop-keepers 
have  been  restrained  from  selling  on  Sundays  ;  and  I  have  per- 
suaded the  inn-keepers  to  sign  an  agreement,  binding  themselves 
under  a  five-guinea  forfeiture  not  to  allow  drinking  on  that  day. 
But  though  the  wealthy  farmers  and  women  are  generally  orderly, 
the  young  labourers  are  a  dissolute  set,  and  I  have  not  so 
much  influence  with  them  now  as  I  had  when  I  was  their  captain. 
It  is  a  misfortune  to  me,  in  so  wide  a  parish,  that  I  am  slow 
at  remembering  either  names  or  faces,  which  is  a  very  useful 
talent.  I  trust,  however,  to  acquire  this  gradually.  .  .  .  The 
Methodists  are  neither  veiy  numerous  nor  very  active,  they 
have  no  regular  meetings,  but  assemble  from  great  distances  to 
meet  a  favourite  preacher.  Yet  I  have  sometimes  thought,  and 
it  has  made  me  really  uncomfortable,  that  since  Rowland  Hill's 
visit  to  the  country  my  congregation  was  thinner.  Perhaps  it 
was  only  owing  to  the  bad  weather,  as  my  numbers  are  now  a 
little  increasing  again.  The  test  here  of  a  churchman  is  the 
Sacrament,  which  the  Methodists  never  attend. 

"  The  Hills  of  Hawkstone  have  declared  their  intention  of 
attending  Hodnet,  which  is  their  parish  church,  and  I  can  per- 
ceive this  will  do  a  great  deal  of  good.  Their  whole  family  live 
together,  and  they  are  very  pleasing  neighbours  to  us.    I  make 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  57 


no  apology  for  this  detail,  since  I  know  that  to  your  friendship 
everything  is  interesting  which  concerns  the  happiness  of  yours 
aflfectionately,  Reginald  Heber." 

Rowland  Hill  was  all  the  more  a  trouble  to  the  young 
rector  that  he  was  a  neighbour  and  a  deacon  of  the  Church  of 
England,  which  he  left  "with  one  boot  on,"  as  he  used  to 
say.  In  Scotland  the  pulpits  were  shut  against  his  drollery, 
so  that  he  named  the  carriage  horses  as  he  travelled  "  order  " 
and  "decorum."  ^\'hen  conducting  family  worship  in  one 
manse  near  Dunbar  he  prayed  for  his  horse,  and  refused  to 
do  otherwise  when  remonstrated  with.  In  a  Bristol  Baptist 
chapel  he  insisted  on  preaching  in  his  gown,  declaring  that 
he  would  as  soon  appear  without  his  breeches  as  without 
that.  He  and  Heber  were  ardent  supporters  of  the  Bible 
Society  at  that  early  time. 

Heber's  training  as  a  parish  minister  was  completed  in 
April  1809  by  his  happy  union  with  Amelia  Shipley,  whose 
father  was  Dean,  and  whose  grandfather  had  been  Bishop  of 
St.  Asaph.  When  congratulating  Thornton  on  his  marriage, 
two  years  before,  Heber  had  written  :  "  I  have  not  yet  un- 
learnt my  boyish  hankering  after  golden  shafts  and  purple 
wings.  The  shafts,  however,  never  fairly  struck  me  but  once, 
and  then  the  wings  were  unfortunately  employed  in  flying 
away."  His  devotion  to  the  duties  of  his  large  parish  became 
more  intense.  In  visitation,  in  care  for  the  sick,  in  charities, 
in  study  for  the  pulpit,  and  in  ministering  also  at  the  various 
chapels  of  ease,  unassisted  at  first,  he  occupied  every  moment 
of  a  busy  life.  The  hours  he  assigned  to  study  and  the  little 
time  he  allowed  for  leisure  were  always  at  once  given  up  on 
the  call  of  the  poor  and  the  sick.  To  Thornton,  who  now  felt 
his  neglect  of  correspondence,  he  replied  : — 

"  I  can  only  plead  the  various  engagements  of  brick  and  mortar, 
wedding  visits,  two  sermons  to  write  every  week,  and  the  whole 
weekly  duty  of  my  large  parish,  having  no  curate.  All  this  has 
really  so  occupied  and  harassed  me,  that  your  letter,  with  many 
others,  had  been  laid  by  and  forgotten.  Pray  send  poor  Janicke 
five  guineas  for  me,  or  more  if  you  think  the  occasion  requires  it. 
I  have  not  yet  got  into  my  old  parsonage,  as  much  more 
was  necessary  to  make  it  habitable  than  I  had  expected.  .  .  . 


58 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Pray  mention,  when  you  write,  the  name  of  the  Httle  manual  of 
family  prayers  which  you  had  when  you  were  abroad,  as  I  have 
forgotten  it,  though  I  remember  well  their  merit  and  simplicity. 
I  prefer  forms  in  general  to  extempore  praying,  particularly  as 
you  know  my  lips  are  rather  those  of  Moses  than  Aaron.  .  .  . 

"  My  parish  goes  on,  I  think  and  hope,  rather  on  the  mending 
hand,  particularly  in  respect  to  the  observance  of  .Sunday  ;  and, 
what  is  also  perceptible,  in  an  increasing  desire  to  have  comfort 
and  advice  from  me  when  they  are  sick,  which  was  chiefly  only 
when  they  were  at  e.xtremity.  I  have  much  less  time  for  read- 
ing than  I  could  wish  ;  but  my  wife  always  encourages  me  to 
diligence." 

His  wife  wrote  of  him  that  he  "  had  so  much  pleasure  in 
conferring  kindness,  that  he  often  declared  it  was  an  exceed- 
ing indulgence  of  God  to  promise  a  reward  for  what  carried 
with  it  its  own  recompense.  He  considered  himself  as  the  mere 
steward  of  God's  bounty,  and  felt  that  in  sharing  his  fortune 
with  the  poor  he  was  only  making  the  proper  use  of  the 
talents  committed  to  him,  without  any  consciousness  of  merit." 


HEBER  S  RECTORV,  HODNET 


The  impossibility  of  living  in  the  small  and  somewhat  ruin- 
ous parsonage  of  Hodnet,  which  had  led  his  father  to  prefer 
Malpas,  compelled  Reginald  Heber  and  his  wife  to  build  the 
new  rectory  on  the  highest  part  of  the  glebe.  There  he  found 
scope  for  his  skill  in  architectural  designing,  and  he  and  Mrs. 
Heber  planted  the  site  with  the  trees  which  have  since  the 
year  1812  given  the  spot  its  stately  beauty.  Save  for  a  slight 
addition  by  the  present  rector,  the  internal  arrangements  of 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  59 


the  house  are  the  same  as  when,  sitting  in  his  Hbrary  to  the 
left  of  the  drawing-room  bow  window,  Heber  commanded  a 
view  of  the  church  and  the  Hall,  and  the  diversified  land- 
scape away  to  the  south-west.  There  he  wrote  his  hymns  and 
sermons,  and  carried  on  his  other  literary  and  theological 
studies,  seldom  tempted  away  either  to  Oxford  or  London,  but 
always  keenly  alive  to  the  needs  of  the  world  and  to  the  great 
events  of  his  time. 

For  two  years,  accordingly,  the  rector  and  his  wife  had  to 
live  away  from  Hodnet,  and  they  made  their  home  a  few 
miles  distant  in  Moreton  Say,  the  perpetual  curacy  and  one 
of  the  chapelries  of  the  parish.  'I'he  parsonage  adjoins 
the  little  church.  Here  Heber  was  brought  into  close  con- 
tact with  the  history  of  India.  The  small  estate  of  Styche, 
long  and  still  the  property  of  the  Clive  family,  is  two  miles 
distant.  Here  Robert  Clive  spent  his  adventurous  boyhood. 
Not  far  off  is  Market  Drayton  church,  the  tower  of  which  he 
climbed,  to  the  alarm  of  his  schoolfellows.  While  several 
Clives  lie  in  the  churchyard  of  Moreton,  duly  commemorated 
by  inscriptions,  more  than  a  century  passed  before,  owing  to 
the  circumstances  of  his  death,  there  was  anything  to  mark  the 
grave  of  the  founder  of  the  British  Indian  Empire.  Recently,  on 
the  opening  up  of  the  floor  of  the  church,  the  coffin  containing 
the  dust  of  Robert,  Lord  Clive,  was  found  on  the  left  side  of 
the  entrance  through  the  old  Norman  doorway  in  front  of 
the  Communion  rails.  A  simple  brass,  on  the  inside  above 
that  doorway,  records  the  fact,  with  this  addition,  "  Primus  in 
Indis."  1 

From  Moreton  Heber  kept  up  his  correspondence  with 
John  Thornton,  to  whom  he  confided  such  scrupulous  self- 
questioning  as  the  following  : — 

"May  1S13. 

"  It  is  very  foolish,  perhaps  ;  but  I  own  I  sometimes  think  that 
I  am  not  thrown  into  that  situation  of  life  for  which  I  am  best 


'  The  inscription  thus  runs,  headed  by  the  Clive  arms  :  ' '  Sacred  to  the 
Memory  of  Robert,  Lord  Clive,  K.B.  Buried  within  the  walls  of  this 
Church.  Born,  29th  September  1725.  Died,  22nd  November  1774. 
Primus  in  Indis."  The  church  was  rebuilt  in  1788,  when  the  part  of  the 
chancel  in  which  Clive  was  buried  became  the  first  pew  to  the  right  facing 
the  Communion  table. 


6o 


BISHOP  HEIiER 


qualified.  I  am  in  a  sort  of  half-way  station,  between  a  parson 
and  a  squire  ;  condemned,  in  spite  of  mj'self,  to  attend  to  the 
duties  of  the  latter,  while  yet  I  neither  do  nor  can  attend  to  them 
sufficiently  ;  nor  am  I  c[uite  sure  that  even  my  literary  habits  are 
well  suited  to  the  situation  of  a  country  clergyman.  I  have  some- 
times felt  an  unwillingness  in  quitting  my  books  for  the  care  of 
my  parish,  and  have  been  tempted  to  fancy  that,  as  my  studies 
are  Scriptural,  I  was  not  neglecting  my  duty.  Yet  I  must  not, 
and  cannot,  deceive  myself ;  the  duties  which  I  am  paid  to  execute 
have  certainly  the  first  claim  on  my  attention  ;  and  while  other 
pursuits  are  my  amusement,  these  are  properly  my  calling.  Prob- 
ably, had  I  not  been  a  scholar,  other  pursuits,  or  other  amuse- 
ments, would  have  stepped  in,  and  1  should  have  been  exposed  to 
equal  or  greater  temptations  ;  but,  1  confess,  when  I  consider  how 
much  I  might  have  done,  and  how  little,  comparatively,  I  have 
done  in  my  parish,  I  sometimes  am  inclined  to  think  that  a  fond- 
ness for  study  is  an  unfortunate  predilection  for  one  who  is  the 
pastor  of  so  many  people.  The  improvement  of  my  parish  does 
not  correspond  to  those  pleasant  dreams  with  which  I  entered  on  my 
office.  My  neighbours  profess  to  esteem  me  ;  but  an  easy  temper 
will,  in  this  respect,  go  a  great  way.  I  write  sermons,  and  have 
moderately  good  congregations  ;  but  not  better  than  I  had  on 
first  commencing  my  career.  The  schools,  etc.,  which  I  pro- 
jected, are  all  comparatively  at  a  standstill  ;  and  I  am  occasionally 
disposed  to  fancy  that  a  man  cannot  attend  to  two  pursuits  at 
once,  and  that  it  will  be  at  length  necessary  to  burn  my  books, 
like  the  early  converts  to  Christianity  ;  and,  since  Providence  has 
called  me  to  a  station  which  so  many  men  regard  \\ith  envy,  to 
give  my  undivided  attention  to  the  duties  which  it  requires. 

"  Wilmot,  whom,  next  to  yourself,  I  esteem  and  love  most 
warmly,  tells  me  that  with  method  and  a  little  resolution  I  may 
arrange  all  that  I  have  to  do,  so  as  that  one  pursuit  shall  not  inter- 
fere with  another.  I  wish  I  knew  how,  or  that,  knowing  how,  I 
had  firmness  to  follow  it.  If  you  and  your  family  would  pass  a 
part  of  your  summer  here,  you  might,  like  a  college  visitor,  correct 
what  you  found  amiss  ;  and  you  need  not  be  told  that  I  shall 
listen  to  no  suggestions  with  so  much  readiness  as  yours.  Pos- 
sibly, for  I  will  own  that  I  am  in  a  gloomy  humour,  I  exaggerate 
circumstances  ;  but  a  day  seldom  passes  without  my  being  more 
or  less  affected  by  them.  On  the  whole,  perhaps,  such  repinings 
at  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  our  duties  are  performed  are 
necessary  parts  of  our  discipline,  and  such  as  we  can  never  hope 
to  get  rid  of." 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  61 


"  14^/1  September  18 1 3. 
"...  I  preached  a  Bible  Society  sermon  on  Sunday,  the  5th, 
at  Shrewsbury,  to  a  numerous  and  attentive,  though  not  very 
liberal,  congregation.  The  archdeacon,  all  the  evangelical  and 
several  of  the  other  clergy,  with  a  great  body  of  squirearchy,  as 
Cobbett  calls  them,  form  our  Society  ;  there  are  some,  also,  of 
the  old  dissenters  aiul  baptists  ;  but  of  the  mcthodists  so  few  are 
subscriljcrs  that  this  last  year  only  one  name  could  be  found 
of  sufficient  respectability  to  be  placed  on  the  committee.  A  few 
sensible  men  still  continue  to  oppose  us  ;  some  of  them  were 
among  my  hearers,  but  whether  I  have  converted  them  I  do  not 
know." 

The  loving-kindness  of  Heber's  sunny  spirit  never  tempted 
him  to  the  neglect  of  duty,  even  when  it  was  disagree- 
able. A  Roman  Catholic  neighbour  having  married  the 
daughter  of  one  of  his  parishioners,  he  addressed  to  him  a 
long  letter,  which  forms  a  model  of  controversial  charity  and 
catholic  truth.  The  opening  and  closing  passages  reveal  the 
spirit  of  the  writer : — 

"  \otli  Fchriiaiy  1814. 
"My  DEAR  Neighbour  —  During  the  few  months  of  your 
residence  in  my  parish  it  has  often  been  my  wish  to  address  you 
on  the  subject  of  religion  ;  but  the  want  of  a  proper  opportunity, 
and  my  own  unav  oidable  absence  from  Hodnet,  on  account  of  my 
health,  during  a  great  part  of  the  time,  ha\  c  prevented  my  taking 
a  step  which,  e\en  now,  perhaps,  may  seem  unusual,  and  such 
as  to  demand  an  ajxilogy.  Your  absence  from  church  and  the 
baptism  of  your  child  by  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
were  circumstances  which,  from  my  former  knowledge  of  your 
family,  could  cause,  of  course,  no  surprise  ;  and  you  know,  I 
trust,  enough  of  my  cliaractcr  not  to  suspect  me  of  a  disposition 
to  quarrel  with  any  man  for  worshipping  the  Blessed  Trinity  in 
the  manner  most  agrccalilc  to  his  c:i)nscicncc.  Whatever  may  be 
your  peculiar  opinions  1  have  no  doubt  that  you  are  an  honest 
man  and  a  sincere  beliexcr.  But,  since  I  naturally  feci  the  same 
regard  for  you  which  I  feel  for  my  other  parishioners,  the  same 
desire  to  feed  you  with  the  bread  of  life,  and  the  same  earnest 
wish  to  amend  whatever  1  belie\e  to  be  wrong  either  in  your 
opinions  or  practice,  I  trust  you  will  not  take  unkindly  the  obser- 
vations which  I  now  offer,  but  that  you  will  examine  them  with 


62 


BISHOP  HEP.ER 


an  attentive  and  impartial  mind,  as  questions  belonging  to  your 
eternal  peace,  and  to  your  acceptance  with  God  through  Jesus 
Christ.  .  .  . 

"  In  what  I  have  now  written  I  can  have  no  desire  to  deceive 
you,  nor  can  I  have  any  worldly  interest  in  your  conversion.  I 
do  not  wish  to  take  you  by  surprise.  Read  this  letter  often  ;  turn 
to  those  places  of  Scripture  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  com- 
pare my  words  with  the  Word  of  God.  Show  them,  if  you  think 
fit,  to  your  own  spiritual  adviser  ;  and  what  answers  he  can  offer, 
and  again  compare  those  answers  with  the  Bible.  The  more  you 
think  upon  religious  subjects — the  more  you  read  God's  Word — 
and  the  more  you  pray  for  His  grace  to  enlighten  your  heart  and 
understanding,  the  wiser  man  and  the  better  Christian  you  will 
undoubtedly  become  ;  and  the  nearer,  unless  I  am  much  mistaken, 
to  that  which  I  hope  one  day  to  see  you,  a  Protestant  of  the  pure 
Church  of  England  1  " 

On  his  wife's  first  visit  to  London,  a  year  after  their  mar- 
riage, she  asked  Heber's  advice  as  to  participating  in  "  what 
are  usually  called  worldly  amusements."    His  reply  was : — 

"  '  You  may  go  where  you  please,  as  I  am  sure  you  will  not 
exceed  the  limits  of  moderation,  except  to  Sunday  evening  parties, 
to  which  I  have  a  very  serious  oljjection.'  He  thought  that  the 
strictness,  which  made  no  distinction  between  things  blamable 
only  in  their  abuse,  and  practices  which  were  really  immoral,  was 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  true  religion  ;  and  on  this  point  his 
opinion  remained  unchanged  to  the  last.  His  own  life,  indeed, 
was  a  proof  that  amusements  so  participated  in  may  be  perfectly 
harmless,  and  no  way  interfere  with  any  religious  or  moral  duty. 
The  Sabbath  he  kept  with  Christian  reverence,  but  not  with 
Mosaical  strictness.  His  domestic  arrangements  were  such  as  to 
enable  every  member  of  his  household  to  attend  Divine  Service 
at  least  once  on  that  day.  After  its  public  duties  were  ended,  he 
employed  the  remainder  of  the  exening  in  attending  to  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  necessities  of  his  parishioners,  in  compos- 
ing sermons,  in  study,  or  in  instructive  conversation  with  his 
family."  i 


1  As  Heber  was  riding  one  Sunday  morning  to  preach,  his  horse  cast  a 
shoe.  Seeing  the  village  blacksmith  standing  at  the  door  of  his  forge,  he  re- 
quested liim  to  replace  it.  The  man  iumiediately  set  about  blowing  up  the 
embers  of  his  .Satiuday  night's  fire,  on  seeing  which,  he  said,  "On  second 
thoughts,  John,  it  does  not  signify  ;  1  can  walk  my  mare  ;  it  will  not  lame 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  63 


The  springtide  of  1814  saw  Heber  established  in  the 
new  rectory  of  Hodnet — his  own  creation.  Soon  after  he 
experienced  the  greatest  of  the  few  great  sorrows  in  his  happy 
hfe  :  his  own  brother,  Thomas  Cuthbert,  died  unexpectedly. 
They  had  rarely  been  parted  all  their  lives.  The  younger 
brother  followed  in  Reginald's  track,  and  under  his  influence, 
at  Brasenose  and  as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England, 
acting  as  curate,  and  removing  to  the  perpetual  curacy  of 
Moreton  only  when  the  elder  brother  vacated  the  parsonage. 
Prayerful  since  childhood,  Reginald  Heber  now  began  the 
habit  of  writing  a  collect  in  Latin  on  every  birthday  and 
important  event  in  his  life.^  In  1818  his  little  daughter,  six 
months  old,  was  removed  by  death,  and  thereafter  he  rarely 
prayed  alone  without  closing  with  the  petition  that  he  might 
at  his  last  hour  be  found  worthy  to  rejoin  her.  On  each 
occasion  his  sorrow  and  his  consolation  found  expression  in 
hymns  of  exquisite  tenderness,  and  his  experience  made  him 
more  than  ever  the  comforter  of  the  sick  and  the  dying.  His 
wife's  hand  drew  this  picture  after  their  return  to  Hodnet : — 

"  His  health  was  now  re-established,  and  although  he  con- 
tinued through  life  subject  to  inflammatory  attacks,  yet  by  constant 
exercise  and  temperance  he  was  enabled  to  pursue  his  studies 
without  injuring  his  constitution.  He  was  an  early  riser,  and 
after  the  family  devotions  were  ended,  he  usually  spent  seven  or 
eight  hours  among  his  books,  leaving  them  only  at  the  call  of 
duty.  Fond  of  society,  and  eminently  qualified  to  shine  in  it,  he 
never  suffered  his  relish  for  its  pleasures  to  betray  him  into 


her,  and  I  do  not  like  to  disturb  your  day  of  rest."  The  blacksmith,  when 
he  related  this,  added,  that  though  as  a  matter  of  necessity  he  had  often  shod 
horses  on  a  Sunday,  he  was  much  struck  by  the  anxiety  of  liis  rector  to  avoid 
being  the  cause  of  what  would  be  blamable  if  made  habitual,  and  might  hurt 
the  conscience  of  some  of  his  parishioners. 

'  On  the  completion  of  his  thirty-third  year  he  wrote  :  Oh  onniipotcns  et 
sempilerne  Deiis,  da  vcniam peccatii  aniionim  prccferitonim  ct  coni  cJas,  pyccor, 
111  quiiqiiid  vi/iv  si/  rcliqunni  mcliin  sit  et  sapientiiis  prirtcrHa.  F.XLiiiJi  iiic, 
Dens,  per  mcrita  Jesii  Christ i.     Am.  n.      On  the  day  of  his  wife's  deparlure 

m  search  of  health  his  diary   1  1  n:  1  this  prayer:  Favt-as,  Deiis  bcnr, 

itineri,  salitti  faveas  Jinnini:  1.  1  ■,.  ,-  aiiimi  concede  traiiquillitntcm  : 
nostrutnque  invicem  atnorem  a,:  ,  ,  ,  '.  /w  Cliristiim  Dominnm  nostrum. 
Amen.  On  the  dismissal  of  a  ^.  r\,uit  .ill'  r  many  broken  promises  of  amend- 
ment, he  wrote  :  O  qui  me  aliorum  jiidiccin  pcccatonim  et  vindiecm  fecisti 
Dens,  miserere  mei  peccatoris,  el  libera  mc  ub  mnu i  pcuato  per  Jesum  Christum 
Dominum  nostrum.  Amen. 


64 


BISHOP  HEBER 


neglecting  his  duties.  He  delighted  in  literature,  but  at  the  same 
time  was  a  most  active  parish  priest  ;  remarkably  happy  in  gain- 
ing the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  flock,  he  found  his  purest 
pleasure  in  administering  to  their  necessities,  and  in  attending 
their  sick  and  dying  beds,  in  consoling  the  mourner,  in  exhorting 
the  sinner  to  repentance,  and  in  endeavouring  to  draw  all  hearts 
after  him  to  his  God.  In  the  long  course  of  his  labours  he  had 
occasionally  to  attend  the  death-bed  of  the  wicked,  and  to  witness 
and  grieve  over  the  failure  of  his  attempts  to  awaken  the  hardened 
conscience.  But  far  more  frequently  the  scenes  of  piety  and 
resignation  which  he  witnessed  in  the  lowly  cottage  were  such  as 
he  delighted  to  relate  to  his  happy  wife,  and  such  as  he  humbly 
trusted  would  make  him  a  better  man.  He  often  observed  that 
the  mere  bodily  fear  of  dying  is  not  a  feeling  implanted  in  us  by 
nature,  and  that  the  manner  in  which  a  poor  and  unlearned  man, 
who  has  little  to  regret  leaving,  and  who  fervently  and  humbly 
relies  on  the  mercies  of  his  Saviour,  looks  to  the  moment  of 
dissolution,  affords  a  useful  lesson  to  the  rich  and  the  learned." 

For  the  next  ten  years  Hodnet  Rectory  was  the  centre  of 
attraction  to  neighbours  and  friends.  In  the  adjoining  Rectory 
of  Stoke  was  young  Maria  Leycester,  whose  sister  had  not 
long  before  been  married  to  Edward  Stanley,  rector  of  Alder- 
ley,  in  Cheshire.  Her  mother's  death  in  1812  led  her,  then 
a  girl  of  fourteen,  "  to  seek  the  highest  source  of  comfort,  and 
to  endeavour  to  make  her  life  helpful  and  useful  to  others." 
Soon  she  discovered  that  help  and  inspiration  could  be  got  at 
the  afternoon  Sunday  service,  when  Heber  regularly  preached. 
Drawn  into  personal  intimacy  at  the  Rectory,  she  became 
engaged  to  Mr.  Stow,  Heber's  friend  and  curate,  who  after- 
wards accompanied  him  to  India,  and  died  at  Dacca.  There, 
too,  she  had  met  Stow's  friend,  Augustus  Hare,  whom  she 
afterwards  married.  It  was  under  Reginald  Heber's  preaching 
and  training  that,  at  the  most  impressionable  time  of  her  life, 
Maria  Leycester  experienced  the  development  of  that  character 
which  makes  the  book  1  one  of  the  most  delightful  in  English 
biographical  literature. 

Its  writer  thus  tells  the  story  :  "  From  frequently  seeing 

'  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life,  by  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare,  author  of  Walks 
ill  Rome,  etc.,  in  two  volumes  (1872),  with  supplementary  volume  of  fifty- 
seven  photographs  (1876). 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  65 


her  at  church,  the  Reginald  Hebers  began  to  invite  her 
to  pass  Sunday  with  them,  and  the  intimacy  thus  en- 
gendered increased  till  scarcely  a  day  passed  part  of  which 
was  not  spent  at  Hodnet,  Maria  Leycester  joining  the  Hebers 
in  their  afternoon  rides  through  the  delightful  glades  of 
Hawkstone,  and  remaining  to  dinner ;  while  in  the  evenings 
Mr.  Heber  would  read  aloud  poetry  or  Walter  Scott's  newly- 
published  novels,  IVaverley,  Guy  Mamtering,  and  Ivanhoe, 
which  for  several  years,  while  their  authorship  remained  a 
mystery,  were  generally  attributed  to  Richard  Heber,  the 
rector's  eldest  brother.  In  1 8 1 7  Miss  Leycester  spent  her  morn- 
ings also  at  Hodnet,  where,  when  she  wished  to  learn  German 
in  preparation  for  a  foreign  tour,  Mr.  Heber  offered  to  become 
her  instructor.  At  the  same  time  he  frequently  wrote  songs 
to  suit  her  music,  as  he  greatly  delighted  in  her  playing  and 
singing.  His  little  poem,  "  I  see  them  on  their  Winding  Way," 
was  written  thus.  Nor  was  it  only  by  lessons  in  literature  that 
Reginald  Heber  instructed  his  pupil.  No  one  could  live  con- 
stantly within  the  influence  of  his  cheerful,  active  life,  devoted, 
either  at  home  or  amongst  his  parishioners,  to  the  good  of 
others,  yet  with  the  most  entire  unostentation,  without  praying 
that  his  mantle  might  fall  upon  them."  1 

These  extracts  from  her  letters,  when  a  girl  of  nineteen, 
reflect  the  happy  time  ;  — 

2d,ih  May  181 7. — I  have  just  spent  two  delightful  days  at 
Hodnet  Rectory.  Oh  !  the  charms  of  a  rectory  inhabited  by  a 
Reginald  Heber  or  an  Edward  Stanley  !  To  be  sure,  splendour 
and  lu.Kury  sink  into  the  ground  before  such  real  happiness." 

"  7//^  June  1S17. — I  have  spent  a  very  agreeable  week,  but 
you  will  not  be  very  much  surprised  when  you  learn  that  two  of 
the  days  we  had  the  Reginald  Hebers  here.  I  never  saw — or 
rather,  heard — Mr.  Reginald  Heber  so  agreeable,  though,  indeed, 
I  always  say  this  of  the  last  time  of  seeing  him  ;  but  really  his 
stories  are  quite  inexhaustible.  His  brother,  Mr.  Heber,  was  here 
likewise  one  day,  and  was  very  agreeable  too,  but  not  so  lovable 
as  Reginald.  How  happy  I  am  to  be  able  to  say  that  I  love  him ! 
I  may  thank  Mrs.  R.  H.  for  that." 

"  \i,th  June. — A  most  delightful  evening  with  the  Hebers — 
Reginald  reading  and  reciting  verses,  and  telling  various  enter- 

'  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life,  vol.  i.  p.  49. 
F 


66 


BISHOP  HEBER 


taining  stories.  Among  others,  he  mentioned  that  a  letter  had 
lately  been  received  at  the  Post  Office  directed  '  To  my  Son,'  and 
great  was  the  difficulty  as  to  whom  the  letter  should  be  delivered, 
till  a  sailor  solved  it  by  asking  if  there  was  a  letter  '  From  my 
Mother,'  when  it  was  given  up  to  him  at  once.  Late  in  the 
evening  he  recited  a  poem  of  Coleridge's — '  The  Ancient  Mariner.'  " 

After  a  tour  in  Europe  she  writes ; — 

"  14//^  December  1 8 18. — My  brothers  and  I  have  had  such  a 
pleasant  visit  at  Hodnet !  There  were  only  Mr.  and  Mrs.  R. 
Heber,  Mr.  Heber,  and  Mr.  Augustus  Hare  there.  The  latter  is 
the  oddest  and  most  agreeable  person  I  have  seen  for  a  very  long 
time — very  clever  and  enthusiastic,  but  quite  unlike  other  people, 
which  is  a  relief  sometimes,  for  everyday  people  are  so  common 
in  this  world.  I  was  very  happy  in  reading  some  of  my  German 
with  the  dear  Reginald,  and  I  found  myself  infinitely  advanced 
since  the  last  time  I  read  with  him." 

Next  year,  when  on  a  tour  tlirough  Scotland,  they  were 
introduced  by  letter  from  Heber  to  Walter  Scott,  with  whom 
they  stayed  for  three  days. 

"  I'jtli  January  1820. — All  last  week  Charles  and  I  passed  at 
Hodnet,  and  I  need  not  say  if  we  enjoyed  it.  Only  Miss  Heber 
was  there,  and  Mr.  Stow,  a  friend  of  Reginald's,  who  is  at  present 
living  at  Hodnet  as  his  curate.  .  .  .  We  had  eveiy  kind  of 
amusement  in  the  evenings,  in  dancing,  singing,  and  acting. 
Reginald  Heber  and  Mr.  Stow  are  both  excellent  actors,  and  we 
acted  a  French  proverb  one  night  and  the  Children  in  the  Wood 
another,  forming  in  ourselves  both  the  performers  and  the 
audience  ;  and  very  amusing  it  was.  It  was  all  e.\tempore,  and  our 
dresses  we  got  up  in  a  few  minutes  at  the  time,  so  there  was  no 
trouble  attending  it ;  no  spectators  to  alarm  us,  and  perfect 
unanimity  and  good-humour  to  make  it  enjoyable.  In  the  morn- 
ings one  of  the  party  read  Scott's  new  novel  Ivan/we  aloud  to  the 
others." 

In  the  summer  of  182 1  Maria  Leycester  was  almost  a  daily 
visitor  at  Hodnet.  Mr.  Stow  was  generally  there.  At  the 
time  of  the  christening  of  the  little  Emily  Heber  she  and  Mr. 
Stow  knelt  side  by  side  as  pvoxy  godfather  and  godmother. 
His  advances  were  coldly  received  by  her  father,  without 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  67 


whose  consent  she  would  not  marry.  He  became  British 
chaplain  at  Genoa,  but  kept  up  a  certain  degree  of  communica- 
tion through  the  Hebers.  Reginald  Heber  was  appointed 
preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  which  detained  him  and  his  wife  in 
London.  Then  every  evening  Maria  Leycester  would  ride 
over  to  Hodnet  to  visit  their  child,  Emily. 

In  April  1822  Heber  was  elected  to  the  preachership  of 
Lincoln's  Inn,  the  whole  number  of  benchers  except  three 
being  present.  He  had  written  to  John  Thornton  :  "  I  hope, 
in  my  anxiety  to  obtain  the  preachership  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  the 
idea  that  I  may  be  useful  in  such  a  pulpit,  and  with  the  sort 
of  audience  which  I  may  expect  to  see  round  me  there,  has 
borne  no  inconsiderable  part.  Yet  I  will  own  the  wish  to  see 
more  of  the  valuable  friends  from  whom  I  am  now  in  a  great 
measure  separated  has  very  much,  perhaps  principally,  con- 
tributed to  it.  I  feel  by  no  means  sanguine  of  success,  indeed 
rather  the  contrary,  as  Maltby  is,  in  all  respects,  a  formidable 
opponent." 

To  the  Bishop  of  Oxford's  congratulations  he  replied : 
"  The  chambers  appropriated  to  the  preacher  here  do  not, 
indeed,  lay  claim  to  the  character  of  a  house  ;  they  are,  how- 
ever, more  convenient  than  I  expected  to  find  them,  and, 
though  small,  will  hold  my  wife  as  well  as  myself  very  com- 
fortably during  the  summer  terms.  The  two  others  I  shall 
come  up  as  a  bachelor.  The  situation  in  all  other  respects, 
of  society,  etc.,  is  a  most  agreeable  one,  and  the  more  so  as  it 
does  not  take  me  away  from  Hodnet  more  than  three  months 
in  the  year." 

Next  to  Thornton,  R.  J.  Wilmot  was  his  most  intimate 
correspondent. 

"  Hodnet  Rectory,  26//;  August  1822. 

"  I  wish  I  had  so  much  as  suspected  that  you  were  to  obtain  a 
sufficient  furlough  from  Downing  Street.  .  .  . 

"  I  am  now  at  work  on  my  sermons  for  next  term.  I  foresee 
already  that,  if  I  mean  to  do  any  good,  or  to  keep  whatever  credit 
I  have  got  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  I  must  take  a  great  deal  of  pains, 
and  bear  in  mind  that  I  have  a  very  fastidious  audience  ;  and  it 
happens  that  I  am  also  engaged  in  a  course  of  lectures  at  Hodnet, 
which  obliges  me  to  write  a  fresh  sermon  every  week  for  my 
rustic  hearers." 


68 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  November  1822. 

"...  Among  the  possible  conductors  of  the  (2uarterly  Review, 
a  name  has  just  occurred  to  me  which  I  cannot  help  thinking 
very  hkely  to  answer.  It  is  that  of  Lockhart,  the  son-in-law  of 
Walter  Scott,  and  the  author  of  Peter's  Letters,  which  are 
written  with  abundant  talent  and  caustic  humour.  He  is,  I 
understand,  an  advocate  in  Edinburgh,  of  great  acknowledged 
talent,  but  little  practice  ;  and  as  his  principles  are  decidedly 
Tory  he  inay  be  very  useful  at  the  present  moment." 

Of  all  his  friendships  the  closest,  as  it  was  the  earliest, 
seems  to  have  been  with  Charlotte  Dod.  Some  of  the  sweetest 
of  his  unpublished  verses  were  written  on  the  successive  anni- 
versaries of  her  birthday,  such  as  this  : — 

"  December's  Day  is  short  and  drear. 

And  bleak  and  bare  December's  tree, 

But  more  than  all  the  circling  year 
December  boasts  a  charm  for  me, 

When  this,  thy  natal  morn,  draws  near, 
And  fancy  wings  her  way  to  thee  ! 


'  Dear  Snowdrop  of  the  shorten'd  day, 
Fann'd  by  the  wild  and  wintry  wind  ! 
The  Roses  nurs'd  by  Summer's  ray 

Less  sweet,  less  pure  than  thee  I  find  ; 
Nor  all  the  boast  of  breathing  May 
Can  match  the  blossoms  of  thy  mind  I 

"  December's  snow  is  on  thine  arm. 

It  decks  and  guards  thy  virgin  breast  ; 
But  whence  arose  the  glowing  charm  j 

Wherewith  thy  sunny  smile  is  drest , 
Who  gave  thy  blush  its  tincture  wann, 

Or  thy  sweet  song  its  thrilling  zest  ? 

"  How  slowly,  clogg'd  with  doubt  and  fear, 

The  months  of  absence  melt  away  ! 
Oh,  when  shall  I  those  accents  hear  ? 

Oh,  when  that  blush,  that  smile  survey  ?  , 
Yet  still — to  faithful  memory  dear —  1 

I  bless  my  Charlotte's  natal  day  ! "  ' 

i 

i 
1 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  69 


When  on  a  visit  to  the  Grosvenors  in  November  1819  he 
thus  wrote  to  her : — 

"  Eaton,  1st  November  1819. 

"  I  have  met  very  pleasant  people  here,  and  like  the  Grosvenors 
themselves  very  much,  but,  though  my  visit  has  therefore  been  an 
agreeable  one,  and  one  which  I  would  not  willingly  have  missed, 
I  ha\e  not  hem  able  to  help  regretting  the  windy  beach  and 
smoky  parlour  of  Woodside,  and  the  party  I  left  behind  me  there. 
Emily  will  tell  you  the  obstacles  which  prevent  my  immediate 
return  to  your  trio.  I  hope,  however,  to  accomplish  it  by  to- 
morrow se'nnight,  when  if,  as  I  hope,  Mr.  Leycester  assists  me,  I 
shall  be  far  less  hurried  for  time  than  I  now  should  have  been. 

"  I  found  Edward  Davenport  here  on  Friday,  not  in  good  spirits, 
as  several  of  the  company  besides  myself  discovered.  He  left  us 
on  Saturday,  and  was  succeeded  by  Lady  Glynn  and  the  H.  W. 
Wynns.  We  have  had  to-day  a  real  good  Sunday,  all  having 
been  twice  at  church,  once  at  sacrament,  and  having  had  family 
prayers  in  the  evening,  which  last  I  find  are  seldom  omitted  here 
even  on  week-days.  The  great  hall  makes  a  famous  chapel,  but 
Lord  G.,  not  having  quite  tired  himself  with  brick  and  mortar,  is 
about  to  add  a  new  wing  to  his  house,  of  which  an  appropriate 
chapel  is  to  be  part.  Lady  G.  played  some  glorious  ancient 
music  on  the  organ.  She  is  very  religious,  but  differs  advan- 
tageously from  your  friend  Lord  R.  S.  in  preferring  Mant  and 
D'Oyley  to  Whitefield  and  Mr.  Scott.  I  found  on  Friday  every- 
body talking  about  Peter's  Letters.  The  author,  it  seems,  is,  as 
we  suspected,  a  lawyer  and  Scotsman  of  the  name  of  Lockhart. 

"  Tell  Emily  that  unless  I  hear  from  her  soon,  she  shall  not 
have  another  letter  from  me  Heaven  knows  when,  and  take  notice 
one  and  all  of  you,  Charlotte,  Louisa,  and  Emily,  that  you  are 
during  this  week  to  bathe,  walk,  ride,  rise  early,  eat,  drink,  and  do 
all  things  which  can  keep  you  well  or  make  you  so,  since  nothing 
will  make  me  so  cross  on  my  return  as  to  be  welcomed  by  pale 
cheeks,  weak  backs,  etc.  Lady  Williams  has  told  me  of  some 
entertaining  new  books,  which,  however,  I  shall  not  tell  you  of  till 
I  am  at  Woodside  to  read  them  myself  Lebc  wohl,  liebste  beste 
schwestcr^  but,  alas,  you  have  now  no  German  ears,  so  I  must  be 
content  to  sign  myself  in  plain  English. — Dearest  Charlotte,  your 
affectionate  brother. 

"26  Upper  Grosvenor  Street, 
lS//;-20//i  June  1 820. 

"  Dearest  Charlotte — I  am  indeed  very  sorry  that  you 


70 


BISHOP  HEBER 


could  not  join  us  at  Oxford,  because  I  am  convinced  that  the  show 
and  the  music  were  both  such  as  would  have  pleased  and  deeply 
impressed  you,  though  the  former  lost  one  of  its  main  attractions 
by  the  absence  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  whom  the  King,  it  is 
said,  insists  on  keeping  close  at  his  elbow  as  a  guardian  against 
any  attacks  which  may  be  made  on  him  either  by  his  subjects  or  his 
wife.  We  had,  however,  Lord  Hill,  Sir  Wm.  Grant,  and  a  pretty 
numerous  appendage  of  persons  distinguished  by  talents  and 
eminence  of  difYerent  kinds,  and  your  friend  Phillimore,  who  as 
Professor  of  Civil  Law  had  to  introduce  them  with  a  Latin  speech, 
went  through  his  functions  with  great  talent,  and  even  dignity. 
Lord  Hill,  of  course,  was  loudly  applauded,  but  the  longest  and 
loudest  applause  of  all  was  bestowed  on  Southey,  who  was  affected 
by  it  even  to  tears,  and  could  talk  of  little  else  when  I  met  him 
afterwards  at  a  great  dinner  given  in  his  honour  at  his  own 
college — Baliol.  There  was  a  very  good  concert  the  evening  of 
the  same  day,  which  ended  with  the  dinner  which  I  have  men- 
tioned to  which  JMilman  and  I  were  asked,  I  believe  in  our 
capacity  of  poets.  I5e  that  as  it  may,  I  was  not  sorry  to  get  a 
long  talk  with  Southey,  next  to  whom  I  sat  at  table.  W.  Scott 
unfortunately  could  not  come  to  Oxford. 

"  Palestine  was  admirably  executed  on  the  Thursday  both  by 
the  vocal  and  instrumental  performers,  and  the  music  greatly  sur- 
passed my  expectations,  particularly  a  choras  at  the  part  '  Let 
Sinai  tell,'  etc.,  and  an  air  by  Miss  Stevens,  with  a  chorus  of 
Bartleman  Knyvet,  Mrs.  Salmon,  etc.,  '  In  frantic  concourse,'  etc. 
The  trumpet  and  the  imitation  of  thunder  in  the  former  were 
more  than  sublime — they  were  almost  terrible.  Miss  Stevens,  to 
whom  I  was  introduced  during  the  evening,  told  me,  as  I  was 
also  told  by  several  reputed  cognoscenti  who  were  present,  that 
Crotch  had  proved  himself  little,  if  at  all,  inferior  to  Handel  and 
Haydn.  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  there  is  some  chance  of 
his  selecting  the  words  for  an  oratorio  from  Milman's  Jerusalem. 
I  suggested  it  to  him  immediately  after  Palestine  was  ended,  and 
he  seemed  to  like  the  idea.  Of  Milman  I  saw  a  good  deal,  and 
introduced  him  to  Emily,  who  likes  him  much.  He  has  promised 
to  come  down  to  Hodnet,  so  that  he  may  still  have  a  chance  of 
the  introduction  to  you  which  he  once  so  much  desired,  and  which 
you  so  cruelly  denied  him.  I  am,  howev  er,  sorry  to  tell  you  that 
he  is  not  at  all  pleased  with  the  review  of  his  poem  in  the 
(2i/arte?-!y,  so  that  it  will  be  as  well,  if  it  is  not  too  late,  not  to 
mention  to  anybody  that  I  am  the  author.  I  had  no  communica- 
tion with  him  myself  on  the  subject,  but  this  is  what  I  hear  from 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  71 


others.  I  certainly,  if  he  asks  me,  shall  not  deny  or  conceal  it, 
since  I  do  not  think  I  have  given  him  any  cause  for  dissatisfac- 
tion. But  poets — I  know  but  too  well,  from  the  recollection  of  my 
own  feelings  when  I  was  also  a  poet — are  not  easily  contented 
with  qualified  praise,  though  such  praise  is  precisely  that  by  which 
a  critic  does  them  most  good  in  the  opinion  of  the  world  at  large. 

"  We  returned  here  on  Friday,  much  to  Emily's  regret,  who 
says  she  never  passed  two  more  delightful  days,  and  would  gladly, 
if  our  engagements  had  allowed  it,  have  stayed  in  O.xford  a  few 
days  longer.  I  should  myself  have  liked  it  well,  since  it  is  always 
pleasant  to  be  in  a  place  where  one  feels  one's  self  to  be  liked 
and  esteemed  (though  above  one's  real  value)  by  many  good  and 
clever  people.  We  returned,  however,  and  found  all  London  in 
alarm  from  the  mutiny  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester's  regiment  of 
Guards,  which,  however,  has  turned  out  of  far  less  consequence 
than  was  apprehended.  It  appears  to  have  immediately  arisen 
from  some  vexatious  and  unusual  restrictions  and  duty,  to  which 
the  men  had  been  exposed  within  the  last  month.  Its  ultimate 
cause  may,  however,  be  found  in  the  habitual  neglect  of  the 
officers,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  leave  the  men  by  far  too 
much  to  their  sergeants,  and  who  had  now  all  quitted  the  parade 
for  different  dinner  parties,  etc.,  leaving  the  sergeants  to  dismiss 
their  companies,  when  the  latter  all  at  once  refused  to  give  up 
their  ball  cartridges,  and  uttered  many  complaints  and  some 
threats  in  which  the  name  of  the  Queen  more  than  once  occurred. 
The  matter  is,  however,  pretty  well  settled  and  the  men  arc  peni- 
tent. There  is,  nevertheless,  a  dreadful  spirit  at  work  in  the 
town.  Every  morning  brings  fresh  accounts  of  the  attempts  made 
by  the  mob  to  bring  the  soldiery  over  to  them,  and  the  allegiance 
of  the  latter  is  believed  to  be  greatly  shaken.  I  can  hardly  con- 
ceive in  any  country  the  existence  of  stronger  symptoms  of  a  prob- 
able revolution,  and,  what  is  worse,  I  find  almost  everybody  of 
nearly  the  same  opinion. 

"  I  dined  yesterday  with  some  public  men  and  several  men  of 
eminent  talents,  who  all  said  that  if  the  Queen  had  a  little  better 
character,  she  might  put  herself  at  the  head  either  of  the  troops 
or  the  rabble,  and  send  her  husband  to  the  Tower,  like  Catherine 
II.,  for  that,  except  Lord  Cholmondeley,  who  is  nobody,  and 
perhaps  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  the  King  had  no  friend. 
But,  alas  !  your  father's  chivalrous  sympathy  has  found  a  most 
unworthy  object  in  the  Queen.  I  have  met  and  conversed  with 
public  men  of  all  parties,  and  cannot  find  that  any  except  perhaps 
Williams  and  Brougham  even  profess  to  regard  her  as  anything 


72 


BISHOP  HEBER 


but  a  shameless  .  .  .  whose  only  defence  is  (what  was  indeed 
implied  in  Brougham's  speech)  that  she  can  recriminate  on  her 
husband.  You  are  quite  right  in  your  determination  not  to  read 
any  of  the  details  of  sin  which  this  miserable  investigation,  if  pro- 
ceeded in,  is  likely  to  make  public.  The  leaders  of  the  inde- 
pendent party  in  the  House  of  Commons  still  hope  that  things 
may  be  accommodated,  but  Williams,  who  is,  you  know,  the 
Queen's  Solicitor-General,  told  Emily  last  night  that  he  did  not 
expect  any  such  thing.  God  help  us  I  It  will  be  a  dreadful  thing 
if  one  worthless  man  and  woman  should  have  the  power  of  throw- 
ing a  great  nation  into  confusion.  But  though  everj'body  professes 
to  be  alarmed,  everybody  goes  on  as  before  in  the  incessant  round 
of  business  and  pleasure,  and  London  was  never  fuller,  gayer,  or 
to  all  outward  appearance  merrier  than  now,  so  that,  having  given 
you  a  dose  of  public  matters,  I  now  return  to  my  own  concerns 
and  those  of  others,  in  which  you  are  more  interested  perhaps  than 
even  in  the  faults  and  follies  of  our  rulers. 

"  When  I  wrote  my  last  little  letter  about  Oxford  I  was  pre- 
paring to  go  to  Newgate  to  see  Mrs.  Fry  and  her  refonned  con- 
victs, of  whom  the  accounts  which  I  had  received  were  such  as 
greatly  to  excite  my  interest  and  curiosity.  She  is,  you  know,  a 
Quaker,  the  wife  of  a  merchant  in  the  city,  who,  some  two  years 
ago,  obtained  with  difficulty  pennission  to  attempt  the  reformation 
of  the  female  prisoners.  Everybody  then  assured  me,  as  she 
herself  told  me,  that  she  could  meet  with  nothing  but  insult, 
violence,  and  horrors  of  every  kind,  and  that  no  modest  woman 
could  for  a  moment  think  of  going  into  such  a  hell  ;  that  even  the 
turnkeys  used  to  be  shocked  at  what  they  heard  and  saw.  She 
went  in,  however,  only  accompanied  by  another  lady.  A  hell, 
she  said,  she  found  it,  where  every  form  of  vice  and  misery  was, 
to  a  degree  of  which  she  had  no  conception.  She  spoke,  how- 
ever, to  two  who  were  under  sentence  of  death,  and  whom  she 
hoped  this  fear  might  have  tamed,  and  the  voice  of  kindness  and 
compassion,  to  which  these  poor  wretches  were  quite  unused,  soon 
produced  an  effect  both  on  them  and  others.  She  went  day  after 
day,  obtained  work  for  such  as  could  work,  and  established  a  school 
for  such  as  could  not  read.  She  is  now  assisted  by  a  numerous 
committee  of  ladies,  and  governs  the  women's  side  of  Newgate 
with  full  authority.  We  found  her  in  a  room  where  she  was  ex- 
pecting her  flock  to  come  together  to  prayers,  and  I  was  greatly 
struck  both  by  her  and  them.  She  is  a  tall,  well-looking  woman 
of  forty-five.  She  has  no  pretensions  to  eloquence,  but  is  the 
best  reader  I  ever  heard,  with  a  voice  of  perfect  music.  She 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  73 


read  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  one  of  the  penitentiary 
psalms,  and  then  said  a  few  words  of  advice  to  the  poor  women 
before  her,  who  listened  with  deep  attention,  and  some  of  them 
with  tears. 

"  Then  an  old,  fat  Quaker  woman  got  up,  and  began  a  sort 
of  sermon,  which  almost  spoiled  the  effect  of  the  whole.  It 
began  to  this  purpose.  '  Hem  !  he — m — m  !  the  interesting — I 
say — the  very  interesting  observations — he — m — m  !  which  have 
been  made  on  this  beautiful  passage  of  Scripture  leave  me  little  to 
say  but — hemm — he — m — m,'  etc.,  etc.  I  really  do  not  ex- 
aggerate her  style,  but  even  your  mother  could  not  have  taken 
off  her  drawling  tone.  However,  I  did  not  laugh,  though  under 
different  circumstances  I  might  have  done  so  ;  for  I  was  by  far 
too  much  impressed  with  the  merits  of  these  good  people's  labours 
and  their  judicious  zeal  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  Afterwards  we 
went  over  the  female  side  of  the  prison — a  number  of  long,  narrow, 
dismal  rooms,  with  paper  instead  of  glass  in  the  windows,  crowded 
with  little  iron  bedsteads,  and  every  vacant  space  occupied  by  im- 
plements of  work,  etc.  A  large  Bible  lay  in  every  room,  and  all 
was  very  clean,  considering  the  crowded  state  of  the  prison.  A 
great  difference  might  be  observed  between  the  new-comers  to 
prison  and  those  who  had  been  some  time  there  and  e.xperienced 
the  good  effects  of  Mrs.  Fry's  discipline.  The  latter  were  all 
clean,  humble,  and  quiet-looking,  and  sate  with  their  eyes  cast 
down  and  every  appearance  of  penitence  and  modesty,  their 
clothes  too,  though  chiefly  very  poor,  were  not  ragged.  The 
former  were  wild,  staring,  half-starved,  and  more  than  half-naked 
creatures,  with  misery  and  wickedness  marked  in  every  line  of 
their  countenances.  Among  these  last  were  two  girls,  one  twelve, 
the  other  nine  years  old,  the  bones  of  their  naked  shoulders 
standing  out  almost  through  the  skin  ;  pale  as  ashes,  but  the 
eldest  with  an  affected  simper  which  was  quite  ghastly.  These 
were  pickpockets.  Most  of  the  rest  were  for  passing  forged 
notes. 

"You  will,  perhaps,  ask  me  to  what  I  attribute  Mrs.  Fry's 
great  power  over  such  beings  as  these,  for  she  said  she  had  no 
doubt  that  in  ten  days'  time  they  would  be  attentive  and  respect- 
ful if  not  penitent.  Partly,  I  conceive,  it  arises  from  the  contrast 
between  her  and  any  human  being  whom  these  poor  wretches 
have  seen  before  ;  partly  from  the  immediate  temporal  advantages 
which  she  has  it  in  her  power  to  bestow,  the  clothes  and  comforts 
of  which  she  is  the  dispenser,  and  the  mitigation  of  punishments 
which  she  has  in  some  instances  obtained  for  them  from  Lord 


74 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Sidmouth.  Still,  however,  much  must  be  ascribed  to  her  own 
calmness,  good  sense,  and  perseverance,  her  freedom  from  all 
enthusiasm  or  vanity,  and  her  not  expecting  too  much  at  first 
either  from  convicts  or  magistrates.  Yet  there  are  a  set  of  men 
who  cannot  bear  that  anybody  should  do  good  in  a  new  way,  who 
absolutely  Iiate  Mrs.  Fry,  and  when  I  was  in  Oxford  I  had  to 
fight  her  battles  repeatedly  with  persons  whom  that  arch  bigot 
Sir  Wm.  Scott  had  been  filling  with  all  possible  prejudices 
against  her." 

"  2nd  July  1820. 

"  You  will  think  me,  I  fear,  a  tardy  correspondent,  but  I  have 
been  much  occupied  during  the  present  week,  over  and  above  the 
usual  impediments  of  a  London  life,  partly  by  inquiries  in  which 
I  have  Ijeen  engaged  after  some  original  letters  of  Jeremy  Taylor, 
and  more  than  all,  by  one  of  the  most  tedious  operations  I  ever 
went  through,  in  sitting  for  my  likeness  to  Slater,  by  desire  of  Sir 
T.  Acland,  who  is  collecting  a  large  portfolio  of  his  friends'  faces. 
I  was  told  that  one  short  sitting,  or  at  most  two,  would  suffice, 
instead  of  which  I  have  already  sat  three  times,  two  hours  each, 
and  am  menaced  with  a  fourth  to-morrow,  to  give  the  last  touches 
to  my  unfortunate  countenance.  I  hope  it  will  be  very  like  at 
last,  though  I  cannot  say  it  strikes  me  as  at  all  beautiful. 
But  you  know  who  said  I  was  fow  (ugly),  and  Mr.  Slater,  I  appre- 
hend, is  very  much  of  the  same  opinion.  You  will  be  able  to 
judge,  however,  for  yourself  whether  it  is  fow  enough,  as  he  is  to 
make  a  copy  for  Emily.  We  leave  town  on  Thursday  to  pay  a 
visit  to  Lady  Jones  at  Worting,  near  Basingstoke." 

Without  date. 

"  I  have,  as  you  may  believe,  lived  very  quiedy  in  this  land  of 
mist  and  snow.  My  only  society  has  been  my  brother,  with  whom 
I  dine  most  days,  as  he  himself  keeps  pretty  closely  at  home. 
Nor,  indeed,  is  it  easy  to  find  better  company  than  he  is.  Yester- 
day evening,  however,  we  spent,  not  in  conversation,  but  in  reading 
over  the  entire  correspondence  and  memoirs  of  Abelard  and 
Heloiza  in  the  original  Latin,  for  those  learned  ladies  of  the 
thirteenth  century  wrote  even  their  love  letters  in  that  language. 
I  find  in  these  documents  sc\cral  circumstances  which  I  had 
cither  never  read  or  had  forgotten,  which  materially  extenuate  the 
conduct  of  both,  though  Abelard,  after  all,  appears  in  a  very 
selfish  and  unamiable  light  in  comparison  with  the  matchless  and 
disinterested  tenderness  shown  towards  him  by  his  high-minded 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  75 


mistress,  who  consented  to  conceal  their  marriage  to  gratify  his 
ambition,  and  took  the  veil  against  her  own  wishes,  and  with  a 
horror  of  conventual  life,  purely  because,  when  he  was  himself  sent 
to  a  convent  by  his  enemies,  he,  from  a  paltry  distrust,  was  afraid 
to  leave  her  in  the  world.  And  in  their  after  life  his  letters  are 
cold  and  shuffling  in  comparison  with  hers,  which  both  in 
eloquence  and  in  purity  of  language  far  surpass  what  I  should 
have  expected  in  an  age  which  we  call  barbarous.  The  moral 
which  Richard  drew  from  the  whole  was,  that  '  women  are  far 
honester  and  better  creatures  than  men,'  and,  in  good  truth,  I 
agreed  with  him." 

"  HODNET,  30///  August  182I. 

"  My  dearest  Charlotte — I  wrote  to  you  from  Oxford  as 
soon  as  I  was  able  to  hold  a  pen,  preferring  rather  to  send  you 
a  dull  sick  man's  letter  than  that  you  should  either  think  me 
negligent  of  you,  or,  hearing  of  my  indisposition  from  other 
quarters,  believe  me  worse  than  I  have  really  been.  I  have, 
indeed,  been  seriously  ill,  and  am  still  very  far  from  my  own  man, 
being  under  strict  regimen  and  taking  draughts  twice  a  day.  I 
am,  however,  thank  God,  a  declared  convalescent,  though  my  state 
of  weakness  yesterday  very  powerfully  enforced  the  good  advice  of 
your  kind  little  letter,  not  to  give  the  Judges  a  very  long  sermon. 
For  that  advice,  as  well  as  for  your  former  affectionate  entreaty  to 
take  care  of  my  health,  accept  my  best  thanks.  Indeed,  my  dear, 
kind  friend,  if  you  knew  how  much  virtue  I  attach  to  these  little 
marks  of  the  interest  you  take  in  me  and  my  pursuits,  you  would 
never  suspect  that  they  could  make  me  angry.  Heaven  grant 
that  I  may  be  always  worthy  of  your  esteem,  your  friendship, 
your  sisterly  tenderness  ;  and  may  the  desire  of  retaining  and 
deserving  them  be  always,  as  now,  a  motive  with  me  for  a  diligent 
improvement  of  my  mind  and  a  faithful  discharge  of  my  duty  ! 
To  lose  your  affection  would  be  a  terrible  punishment  to  me,  but 
I  trust,  and  am  persuaded,  I  never  shall  lose  it,  unless,  which 
God  forbid,  I  render  myself  unworthy  of  it. 

"  I  was  heartily  tired  of  town,  where  my  labours  had,  indeed, 
been  intense  and  incessant,  and  where,  for  a  few  of  the  last  days, 
I  felt  some  symptoms  of  the  fever,  which  was  at  length  fanned 
into  a  flame  by  the  loss  of  a  night's  rest  and  the  heat  of  the  Con- 
vocation House  at  Oxford.  I  have  had,  however,  the  happiness 
of  being  more  with  my  brother  than  I  have  been  for  a  long  time, 
of  finding  that  I  was  not  only  useful  to  him,  but  that  he  appreci- 
ated and  loved  my  zeal,  and  at  length  of  being  one  of  the  main 


76 


BISHOP  HEBER 


agents  in  defending  his  character  and  securing  his  success  in  what 
has  been  the  main  object  of  his  hfe.  Unwell  and  languid  as  I 
myself  was  when  I  reached  Shrewsbury  on  Tuesday  evening,  our 
meeting  was,  as  you  may  believe,  one  of  great  joy,  though  we 
neither  of  us  could  help  recurring  with  bitter  sorrow  to  the  delight 
with  which,  if  our  brother  Tom  had  lived,  we  should  have  ex- 
changed congratulations  with  him.  Alas  I  no  happiness  in  this 
world  can  be  perfect.  It  was  at  one  time  likely  that  I  should 
have  been  obliged  to  go  down  two  days  previous  to  the  election 
to  Bath  and  Bristol,  and  I  could  not  help  making  some  calcula- 
tions to  see  whether  I  could  possibly  find  time  to  get  a  sight  of 
your  Mary.  My  journey  was,  however,  abandoned,  and  I  am 
thankful  it  was  so,  since  I  should  probably  have  been  laid  up  at 
one  of  the  inns,  and  have  had  the  misery  of  a  fever  in  a  strange 
place,  aggravated  by  my  anxiety  to  get  to  Oxford,  and  my  un- 
certainty as  to  the  event  of  my  brother's  election.  As  it  was,  I  had 
quite  enough  of  similar  feelings.  I  believe  I  told  you  that  I 
have  another  sermon  to  preach  at  Shrewsbury  on  Sunday  next 
for  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge." 

The  longest  of  Heber's  many  letters  to  Charlotte  Dod  is 
devoted  to  a  criticism  of  Thomas  Scott's  Force  of  Truth,  in 
which  he  joins  with  his  saintly  neighbour,  Fletcher  of  Madeley, 
and  "a  Methodist  preacher  at  Shrewsbury,  named  Brocas,"  in 
a  vigorous  attack  on  hyper-Calvinism,  while  reprobating  "  that 
intolerant  spirit  which  would  deny  the  name  of  Churchmen  to 
the  Calvinistic  clergy."  The  opening  and  closing  passages  of 
an  earnest  polemic  breathe  Heber's  spirit  of  humbleness  and 
charity  : — 

"  My  dear  Charlotte — Several  years  had  elapsed  since  I 
last  read  Mr.  Scott's  Force  of  Truth,  and  I  am  glad  that  my 
attention  has  again  been  called  to  it,  because  it  is  a  work  which 
one  can  hardly  read  without  deriving  advantage  from  the 
eminent  piety  and  sincerity  which  pervade  it,  and  the  truth  of 
many  of  the  opinions  enforced  in  it.  God  knows  how  earnestly 
I  myself  desire  to  be  altogether  such  a  one  as  Mr.  Scott  is,  in 
strength  of  faith,  purity  of  heart  and  life,  and  devotion  of  myself 
to  God's  will  and  service  ;  and  it  is  because  I  regret  that  his 
example,  and  the  truths  which  he  recommends,  should  be  encum- 
bered by  any  irrelevant  or  erroneous  opinions  that  I  am  the 
more  anxious  to  point  out  to  you  the  parts  in  which  I  difl^er  from 
him,  and  what  appear  to  me  the  leading  and  per\-ading  mistakes 


HODNET  PARISH  AND  HODNET  FRIENDS  77 


of  his  system.  To  the  few  points  in  controversy  between  us  I 
have  now  for  many  years  paid  considerable  attention,  though 
certainly  I  have  never  been  so  much  interested  in  them,  as  in 
those  on  which  the  Calvinists  and  Anninians  are  agreed  in  regard- 
ing as  'the  great  power  of  God  to  salvation.' 

"  E.xcepting  incidentally,  I  have  never  written  or  preached  on 
them,  because  I  regard  it  as  the  great  misfortune  of  our  times 
that  men  have  been  squabbling  and  calling  names  about  doctrines 
not  essential,  and  differences  which  only  exist  in  words,  to  the 
neglect  of  the  real  interests  of  the  souls  committed  to  their  charge. 
But  the  course  of  my  studies  has  often  brought  them  under  my 
attention  ;  my  reading  has  been  extensive  among  the  elder  divines 
of  all  sects  and  parties  ;  and  though  I  will  not  deny  that  I  have 
been  always  under  some  degree  of  prejudice  against  the  pecu- 
liarities of  Calvinism,  I  do  not  think  I  have  read  the  works  of  its 
advocates  with  an  uncandid  or  uncharitable  spirit.  So  far  I  am, 
perhaps,  as  well  qualified  to  judge  of  the  cjuestion  as  Mr.  Scott 
was.  In  one  respect  there  has,  indeed,  been  a  difference  in  our 
system  of  inquiry,  inasmuch  as,  though  I  have  always  prayed  God 
for  the  aid  of  His  spirit  to  guide  me  generally  into  all  truth,  and 
more  especially  into  the  knowledge  of  whatever  truth  was  neces- 
sary or  profitable  to  my  salvation  and  the  salvation  of  others,  yet 
I  have  not  ventured  to  ask  or  hope  that  the  Holy  Ghost  would 
secure  me  from  all  error,  or  enable  me  to  decide  on  topics  so 
abstruse  as  those  of  free  will  and  the  final  perseverance  of  the 
elect.  You  will,  therefore,  take  my  notions  on  these  and  suchlike 
points  as  the  opinion  of  one  sufficiently  weak  and  fallible,  and 
who,  though  he  believes  himself  right  in  his  conclusions,  has 
looked  for  no  other  aid  in  forming  them  than  (what  I  really  trust 
I  have  received  in  answer  to  my  worthless  prayers)  a  teachable 
mind,  and  grace  to  use  diligently  the  means  of  information  offered 
to  me. 

"  That  Mr.  Scott  has  expected  more  than  this  seems  to  me  the 
lurking  root  of  the  errors  into  which  he  has  fallen.  .  .  . 

"  Do  not  expect  too  much  certainty  on  topics  which  have 
exercised  the  sagacity  of  men  for  many  ages,  without  any  agree- 
ment being  produced  among  them  ;  but  if  you  still  find  perplexities 
beyond  your  power,  dismiss  them  from  your  mind  as  things  which 
cannot  concern  you.  '  Secret  things  belong  to  the  Lord  our 
God ' ;  but  on  the  necessity  of  an  atonement,  on  justification 
by  faith,  and  on  the  obligation  which  lies  on  us  to  work  out,  with 
fear  and  trembling,  the  salvation  thus  begun  in  us,  no  real  diffi- 
culties exist,  and  by  these,  on  every  system,  our  entrance  to  heaven 


78 


BISHOP  HEBER 


is  to  be  secured.  That  you,  my  dear  Charlotte,  may  through  hfe 
'  believe  and  know  the  things  you  ought  to  do,  and  have  grace 
and  power  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  same,'  is  the  earnest  prayer  of 
your  sincere  and  affectionate  friend,  Reginald  Heber." 

The  prayers  and  the  pains  of  Reginald  Heber  in  the  parish 
of  Hodnet  have  borne  good  fruit  under  the  similar  care  of  his 
successors,  one  of  whom  married  his  sister.  The  present 
rector,  the  Rev.  Richard  Hugh  Chohnondeley,  is  also  a  kins- 
man descendant.  There  is  not  a  pauper  in  the  parish,  which 
is  now  a  unit,  with  its  undivided  Council  under  the  Local 
Government  Act.  The  catholic  spirit  of  the  good  and  great 
rector  of  1807- 1823  still  so  works  that  Churchman  and 
Nonconformist  have  formed  a  Shropshire  Christian  Unity 
Association.! 

'  The  British  Weekly  publishes  this  news-letter  :  — 

"Stoke -UPON -Tern. — On  7th  August  1894  somewhat  remarkable 
meetings  were  held  in  the  Parish  Church,  on  the  occasion  of  the  anniversary  of 
the  Shropshire  Christian  Unity  Association.  Rev.  R.  H.  Corbet,  Rector,  and 
President  of  the  Association,  occupied  the  chair.  Rev.  J.  Price,  of  Wistans- 
wick,  Congrcgalionalist,  read  the  scriptures  and  led  the  devotions  of  the 
assembly.  The  chairman  then  gave  a  few  warm  words  of  welcome,  and 
explained  the  object  of  the  -Association,  after  which  he  called  upon  the  Rev. 
E.  R.  Barrett,  B..\. ,  of  Liveipool,  brother  of  the  chairman  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Union,  to  address  the  meeting.  Then  followed  short  addresses  by  the 
Rector  of  Hodnet,  Rev.  W.  Osborne,  Wesleyan,  and  Dr.  Kinns  of  London. 
At  the  evening  meeting  short  speeches  were  delivered  by  the  Revs.  T.  Hamer, 
Bolton;  J.  H.  Gwyther,  Rock  Ferry;  T.  Glassey,  Penistone  ;  J-  B.  Walton, 
Wem  ;  the  Free  Church  minister,  Whitchurch  ;  Major  Heber-Percy  ;  and  T. 
Clunas,  Hodnet.  Those  who  have  attended  these  meetings  from  the  time  of 
the  formation  of  the  .Association  must  have  witnessed  with  pleasure  the  in- 
creasing strength  and  deepening  spirit  of  unity.  The  fact  that  it  was  possible 
to  meet  in  the  Parish  Church  in  brotherly  conclave,  and  that  ministers  of  the 
Established  and  Free  Churches,  and  laymen  connected  with  both,  could  take 
part  in  these  meetings,  is  decidedly  a  step  in  advance.  Within  a  mile  or  two 
of  the  Rectory  is  the  Parish  Church  of  Hodnet,  sacred  to  the  memory  of 
Reginald  Heber,  who  formerly  ministered  there.  Like  Mr.  Corbet,  the 
Rector  of  Hodnet  is  a  man  of  wide  sympathies  and  of  truly  catholic  views. 
Recently,  at  a  bazaar  held  for  the  removal  of  a  debt  in  connection  with  the 
Parish  Church  at  Hodnet,  one  of  the  stalls  was  completely  furnished  by  Non- 
conformist parishioners." 


CHAPTER  V 


POET  AND  CRITIC 

"  My  Psalm-singing  continues  bad.  Can  you  tell  me  where  I 
can  purchase  Cowper's  Olney  hymns,  with  the  music,  and  in  a 
smaller  size  without  the  music,  to  put  in  the  seats  ?  Some  of 
them  I  admire  much."  So  Reginald  Heber  wrote  to  his  friend 
John  Thornton  in  February  1809, when  he  had  been  for  eighteen 
months  rector  of  Hodnet.  "  Any  novelty,"  he  added,  "  is 
likely  to  become  a  favourite,  and  to  draw  more  people  to  join 
in  the  singing.  What  book  is  used  at  the  Lock  ?  If  I  could 
get  one  or  two  I  should  like  to  select  from  them."  Two  years 
later  he  confesses  to  R.  J.  Wilmot  that  his  attempt  to  reform 
the  psalmody  had  proved  fruitless.  As  in  177  i  John  Newton, 
of  the  Calvinistic  and  Evangelical  side  of  the  Church  of 
England,  proposed  to  the  poet  Cowper  that  they  should  jointly 
write  hymns  for  use  in  the  parish  church  of  Olney  and  in 
Lord  Dartmouth's  old  mansion,  where  the  meetings  of  the 
children  and  for  prayer  were  held,  so  Heber  felt  himself  con- 
strained to  write  hymns  for  his  people,  and  to  summon  to  the 
work  his  old  friends,  Henry  Hart  Milman  and  Southey. 

He  began  by  publishing  a  few  in  the  Christian  Observer  in 
the  years  18 11  and  1812.  These  he  composed  for  particular 
tunes,  such  as  his  accurate  ear  made  him  always  ready  to 
catch,  especially  at  first  the  Scottish  and  Welsh  airs.  Writing 
at  a  period  in  the  early  history  of  English  hymnody,  when  gross 
abuses  disfigured  some  of  the  more  popular  hymns  to  such  an 
extent  that  even  yet,  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  America, 
there  are  churches,  as  well  as  Christians,  who  will  use  nothing 


8o 


BISHOP  HEBER 


but  the  Psalms  of  the  Old  Testament  in  praise,  Heber  pre- 
faced his  tentative  verses  with  this  criticism  : — 

"  The  following  hymns  are  part  of  an  intended  series,  appro- 
priate to  the  Sundays  and  principal  holy  days  of  the  year,  con- 
nected in  some  degree  with  their  particular  Collects  and  Gospels, 
and  designed  to  be  sung  between  the  Nicene  Creed  and  the 
sermon.  The  effect  of  an  arrangement  of  this  kind,  though  only 
partially  adopted,  is  very  striking  in  the  Romish  liturgy  ;  and  its 
place  should  seem  to  be  imperfectly  supplied  by  a  few  verses  of 
the  Psalms,  entirely  unconnected  with  the  peculiar  devotions 
of  the  day,  and  selected  at  the  discretion  of  a  clerk  or  organist. 
On  the  merits  of  the  present  imperfect  essays  the  author  is  un- 
affectedly diffident  ;  and  as  his  labours  are  intended  for  the  use  of 
his  own  congregation,  he  will  be  thankful  for  any  suggestion  which 
may  advance  or  correct  them.  In  one  respect,  at  least,  he  hopes 
the  following  poems  will  not  be  found  reprehensible  ;  no  fulsome 
or  indecorous  language  has  been  knowingly  adopted  ;  no  erotic 
addresses  to  Him  whom  no  unclean  lips  can  approach  ;  no  allegory, 
ill  understood  and  worse  applied.  It  is  not  enough,  in  his  opinion, 
to  object  to  such  expressions  that  they  are  fanatical ;  they  are 
positively  profane.  When  our  Saviour  was  on  earth,  and  in  great 
humility  conversant  with  mankind  ;  when  He  sat  at  the  table,  and 
washed  the  feet,  and  healed  the  diseases  of  His  creatures,  yet  did 
not  His  disciples  give  Him  any  more  familiar  name  than  Alastcr 
or  Lord.  And  now,  at  the  right  hand  of  His  Father's  majesty, 
shall  we  address  Him  with  ditties  of  embraces  and  passion,  or  in 
language  which  it  would  be  disgraceful  in  an  earthly  sovereign  to 
endure  ?  Such  expressions,  it  is  said,  are  taken  from  Scripture  ; 
but  even  if  the  original  application,  which  is  often  doubtful,  were 
clearly  and  unecjuivocally  ascertained,  yet,  though  the  collective 
Christian  Church  may  be  very  properly  personified  as  the  spouse 
of  Christ,  an  application  of  such  language  to  Christian  believers 
is  as  dangerous  as  it  is  absurd  and  unauthorised.  Nor  is  it  going 
too  far  to  assert  that  the  brutalities  of  a  common  swearer  can 
hardly  bring  religion  into  more  sure  contempt,  or  more  scandal- 
ously profane  the  Name  which  is  above  every  name  in  heaven  and 
earth,  than  certain  epithets  applied  to  Christ  in  some  of  our 
popular  collections  of  religious  poetry." 

These  early  hymns,  and  some  of  the  lighter  verses  with  which 
their  author  used  to  beguile  his  way  to  St.  Asaph,  of  which  he 
was  appointed  a  Prebendary  in  1817,  were  set  to  music  by 

i 
i 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


8i 


the  accomplished  hymnologist,  Canon  W.  H.  Havergal.  In 
June  1819  we  find  him  writing  to  Wilmot  Horton  : — 

"  I  have  been  for  some  time  engaged  in  correcting,  collecting, 
and  arranging  all  my  hymns,  which,  now  that  I  have  got  them 
together,  1  begin  to  have  some  high  Church  scruples  against 
using  in  public.  Otherwise,  I  have  a  promise  of  many  fine  old 
tunes,  not  Scotch,  as  I  once  dreamed  of  having,  but  genuine  Church 
melodies.  This  amusement,  for  I  cannot  call  it  business,  together 
with  the  business  which  I  cannot  call  amusement,  of  making  two 
sermons  weekly,  has  left  me  very  little  time  either  for  my  dictionary 
or  the  Oiiartcrly.  Yet  the  first  goes  on,  however  slowly  ;  and  for 
the  latter,  I  am  preparing  an  article  on  Kinneir's  Travels,  com- 
pared with  Rennel's  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand,  and  another  on 
Hunt's  translation  of  Tasso." 

The  consecration  of  the  first  Bisliop  of  Calcutta,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Anglican  and  Scottish  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  the  East  India  Company's  territories  in  1814,  led 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  to  resolve  to 
respond  to  the  claims  of  India  on  England  from  a  missionary 
point  of  view.i  Following  WilHam  Carey-  at  Serampore, 
Bishop  Middleton  appealed  for  funds  to  found  and  endow  a 
Mission  College  at  Calcutta.  Archbishop  Sutton  heartily 
assisted,  and  upwards  of  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling  was 
sent  out.  Of  the  whole  sum  ^45,747  was  the  result  of  a 
royal  letter,  in  18 19,  authorising  collections  in  every  church 
and  chapel  in  England,  as  Cromwell  had  done  in  1649  when 
creating  the  first  English  Missionary  Society  under  the  title  of 
the  "Corporation  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  New 
England."  The  occasion  again  brought  Heber,  all  uncon- 
sciously, into  close  contact  with  India  Missions,  little  knowing 
that  he  was  to  be  the  successor,  and  that  soon,  of  the  first 
Metropolitan  of  India. 

It  was  Whit  Sunday  in  the  year  18 19.  His  father-in-law, 
the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph,  was  vicar  of  Wrexham,  and  arranged 
to  preach  the  missionary  sermon  on  the  day  appointed,  while 
he  engaged  Helper  to  deliver  the  first  of  a  course  of  Sunday 
evening  lectures  in  that  church.    On  the  Saturday,  when  pre- 

'  Dii;est  of  S.P.G.  Records,  1701-1892,  p.  472. 
-  Life  of  William  Carey,  2nd  ed.,  p.  332  (John  Murray). 
G 


82 


BISHOP  HEBER 


paring  for  the  services,  the  Dean  asked  his  son-in-law  to  write 
"something  for  them  to  sing  in  the  morning."  So  early  as 
I  7 1 9  Isaac  Watts  had  written  his  paraphrase  of  the  seventy- 
second  psalm,  "  Jesus  shall  reign,"  and  the  Welsh  Williams  that 
hymn  which  still  stands  only  second  in  the  too  short  list  of 
missionary  trumpet-calls,  "  O'er  those  gloomy  hills  but  these 
and  others,  such  as  Wesley's,  were  hardly  known  outside  of 
the  Dissenters,  and  it  was  fortunate  that  Dr.  Shipley  summoned 
Heber  to  his  aid.  The  almost  immediate  result  was  the 
composition,  as  if  by  an  inspiration,  of  what  is  still  the  greatest 
hymn  in  the  chief  missionary  language  of  the  race.  Retiring 
to  a  corner  of  the  room,  Heber  at  once  wrote  down  the  first 
three  verses  beginning  "  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains," 
when  the  Dean  called  out,  "What  have  you  written?" 
Heber  read  over  the  lines,  when  the  Dean  exclaimed,  "  There, 
there,  that  will  do  very  well."  "  No,"  replied  the  poet,  "  the 
sense  is  not  complete,"  and  added  the  fourth  verse.  He 
would  have  gone  on  with  a  fifth,  but  the  Dean  was  inexorable 
to  his  request,  "  Let  me  add  another,  oh !  let  me  add 
another  "  ;  and  the  hymn  was  sung,  as  we  have  it,  next  morn- 
ing in  AVrexham  church. ^ 

Heber  had  thus  made  so  many  additions  to  his  collection 
of  hymns,  from  his  own  pen  and  Milman's  chiefly,  and  he  was 
so  hopeful  of  Walter  Scott's  and  Southey's  co-operation,  that  he 
sought  the  advice  of  Dr.  Howley,  Bishop  of  London,  and  Arch- 
bishop Sutton  as  to  publishing  them  by  authority.  His  letter 
to  the  former  has  a  special  value  in  the  history  of  hymnody : — 

"HoDNET  Rectory,  d^h  Octobo  1820. 
"...  I  have  for  several  years  back  been  from  time  to  time, 
and  during  the  intervals  of  more  serious  study,  engaged  in  fonning 
a  collection  of  hymns  for  the  different  Sundays  in  the  year,  as  well 
as  for  the  principal  festivals  and  Saints'  days,  connected,  for  the 
most  part,  with  the  history  or  doctrine  contained  in  the  Gospel 
for  each  clay.  I  began  this  work  with  the  intention  of  using  it  in 
my  own  Church,  a  liberty  which,  I  need  not  tell  your  Lordship, 


'  This  is  from  the  circumstiintial  account  by  the  late  Thomas  Edgeworth, 
SoUcitor,  Wrexham,  written  on  a  fly-leaf  of  the  facsimile  of  the  original  MS. 
which  V>r.  Raffles  of  Liverpool  secured  from  the  printer.  See  Julian's  Dictionary 
of  Hymnology,  p.  399  (John  Murray). 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


83 


has  been,  for  many  years  back,  pretty  generally  taken  by  the  clergy, 
and  which,  if  custom  alone  were  to  be  our  guide,  would  seem 
already  sufficiently  authorised.  Thus  the  morning  and  evening 
hymn  of  Bishop  Ken  are,  in  country  parishes,  almost  universally 
used.  Hardly  a  collection  is  made  for  charitable  purposes  with- 
out a  hymn  for  the  occasion.  Of  the  anthems  used  in  our  Cathedrals, 
many  are  taken  from  other  sources  than  either  the  Scripture  or  the 
Liturgy.  And,  even  in  sacred  oratorios,  such  songs  as  '  Angels 
ever  bright  and  fair,'  etc.,  may  be  considered  as  admissions  of 
the  right  to  introduce  into  places  of  worship  compositions  not 
regularly  authorised  by  the  rubric.  But  the  most  remarkable 
instance  of  the  kind  which  I  have  met  with  was  during  the 
installation  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  at  Cambridge,  when,  during 
Divine  Service  in  the  University  Church,  and  in  the  presence  of 
her  Reverend  and  Right  Reverend  heads,  I  heard  a  poem  sung 
in  the  style  of  Darwin,  in  which  the  passion-flower  was  described 
as  a  virgin,  devoting  herself  to  religion,  attended  by  as  many 
youths  as  the  plant  has  stamina. 

"  I  might,  then,  perhaps,  without  troubling  your  Lordship,  have 
been  content  to  transgress  the  rubric  in  so  good  company,  and 
have  taken  the  same  licence  with  my  neighbours,  had  I  not,  in 
looking  over  the  popular  collection  from  which  I  wished  to  glean 
for  my  own,  been  much  shocked  and  scandalised  at  many  things 
which  I  found,  and  which  are  detestable,  not  in  taste  only,  but, 
to  the  highest  degree,  in  doctrine  and  sentiment.  The  famous 
couplet — 

"  '  Come  ragged  and  guilty, 
Come  loathsome  and  bare  ' — 

is  far  more  tolerable  than  many  which  I  could  instance  ;  and,  I 
own,  I  began  to  dislike  a  liberty,  however  conceded  or  assumed, 
which  had  been  abused  so  shamefully.  Many  of  my  friends, 
indeed,  quote  such  passages  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  excluding 
from  the  Church  service  all  but  the  authorised  versions  of  Psalms. 
But  thus  to  argue  from  the  abuse  of  hymns  against  their  decent 
and  orderly  use  does  not  seem  very  accurate  logic,  and  there  are 
many  reasons  why  I  should  regret  passing  so  severe  a  sentence 
on  all  for  the  faults  of  some.'' 

The  reasons  assigned  are  the  fondness  of  the  people  for  these 
compositions,  especially  Evangelicals  and  Dissenters;  their 
good  taste,  as  seen  in  the  unusual  popularity  of  Ken's  two 
beautiful  hymns  for  morning  and  evening  ;  the  whole  stream 


84 


BISHOP  HEBER 


of  precedent  in  the  Christian  Church  from  the  remotest 
antiquity ;  and  the  precedent  set  by  the  compilers  of  the 
Church  of  England  liturgy.    He  thus  concluded  : — 

"  The  evil  indeed,  if  it  be  one,  of  the  admission  of  hymns  into 
our  Churches  has,  by  this  time,  spread  so  widely,  and  any  attempt 
to  suppress  it  entirely  would  be  so  unpopular,  and  attended  with 
so  much  difficulty,  that  I  cannot  help  thinking  it  would  be  wiser, 
as  well  as  more  practicable,  to  regulate  the  liberty  thus  assumed, 
instead  of  authoritatively  taking  it  away.  Nor  can  I  conceive 
any  method  by  which  this  object  might  be  better  obtained  than 
by  the  publication  of  a  selection  which  should,  at  least,  have  the 
praise  of  excluding  whatever  was  improper  in  diction  or  sentiment ; 
and  might  be  on  this,  if  on  no  other  ground,  thought  not  unworthy 
a  licence  of  the  same  kind  as  that  which  was  given  to  the  psalms 
of  Tate  and  Brady.  I  have  the  vanity  to  think  that  even  my  own 
compositions  are  not  inferior  in  poetical  merit  to  those  of  Tate  ; 
and  my  collection  will  contain  some  from  our  older  poets,  which  it 
would  be  mockery  to  speak  of  in  the  same  breath  with  his.  There 
are  a  few  also  which  I  have  extracted  from  the  popular  collections 
usually  circulated,  which,  though  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn 
their  authors,  possess  considerable  merit  and  much  popularity, 
and  are  entirely  free  from  objectionable  expressions.  Nor  am  I 
without  hope,  if  encouraged  by  your  Lordship  to  proceed,  of 
obtaining  the  powerful  assistance  of  my  friends  Scott  and  Southey. 
By  far  the  greater  part,  however,  of  my  present  collection  are  of 
my  own  making,  a  circumstance  which,  I  trust,  will  not  expose  me 
to  the  imputation  of  vanity,  when  the  difficulty  is  considered  of 
finding  unexceptionable  words  suitable  to  the  plan  which  I  have 
adopted.  I  have  given  the  names  of  the  authors  from  whose 
works  1  have  extracted  any  hymns.  My  own  I  have  marked 
with  my  initials.  But  my  collection  is  yet  in  MS.,  and  has  still 
some  lacuna  to  fill  up. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  my  Lord,  I  feel  I  am  taking  a 
great  liberty,  but  one  for  which  I  hope  I  shall  be  pardoned,  in 
requesting  to  know  whether  you  think  it  possible  or  advisable  for 
me  to  obtain  the  same  kind  of  permission  for  the  use  of  my  hymns 
in  Churches  which  was  given  to  Tate  ?  and  if  so,  what  is  the 
channel  through  which  I  should  apply?  Or  if,  from  the  mediocrity 
of  my  work,  or  for  any  other  reason,  this  would  be  improper  or 
unattainable,  whether  1  may  conscientiously  assume  the  same 
liberty  that  many  of  my  neighbours  do,  and  ha\'e  a  few  copies 
printed,  not  for  publication,  but  for  the  use  of  my  own  Church  ? 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


85 


This  1  should,  on  some  accounts,  prefer,  so  far  as  I  am  myself 
concerned,  to  the  more  ambitious  project,  inasmuch  as  I  am  well 
aware  that  no  great  renown  is  to  be  expected  by  the  publisher  of 
religious  poetry."  , 

By  the  end  of  1821  Milman's  contributions  were  in  Heber's 
hands,  and  called  forth  this  letter : — • 

"IIoDNET  Rectory,  2%th  Decemhcr  1S21. 
"  My  dear  Milman — You  have  indeed  sent  me  a  most  power- 
ful reinforcement  to  my  projected  hymn-book.  A  few  more  such 
hymns  and  I  shall  neither  need  nor  wait  for  the  aid  of  Scott  and 
Southey.  Most  sincerely,  I  have  not  seen  any  lines  of  the  kind 
which  more  completely  correspond  to  my  ideas  of  what  such 
compositions  ought  to  be,  or  to  the  plan,  the  outline  of  which  it 
has  been  my  wish  to  fill  up.  In  order  that  you  may  understand 
the  nature  of  that  plan  more  clearly,  I  have  sent  you  the  first 
volume  of  my  collection,  in  which,  as  you  will  observe,  I  have 
marked  the  author's  name  or  initials  to  all,  whether  original  or 
collected,  of  which  the  author  is  known.  You  will  see  that  it  has 
been  my  plan  to  collect,  and,  in  some  instances,  to  adapt,  the  best 
published  hymns,  and  whatever  applicable  passages  of  religious 
poetry  admitted  of  it.  That  these  are  not  more  numerous  in  my 
collection,  and  that  there  is  so  much  of  my  own,  I  trust  you  will 
impute  not  to  any  conceit  in  my  own  workmanship,  but  to  the 
real  scarcity  of  foreign  materials,  and  the  miserable  feebleness  and 
want  of  taste  which  the  generality  of  such  collections  display,  and 
which  have  often  driven  me  to  my  own  resources  in  pure  despair 
of  being  supplied  elsewhere.  There  are  not,  as  you  will  see, 
many  lacuna  in  the  portion  of  the  year  which  this  little  book  con- 
tains. In  the  other  half  year  they  are  more  numerous  ;  and  even 
those  Sundays  which  I  have  supplied  with  appropriate  hymns 
may  very  well  carry  double,  or  even  treble,  if  you  will  supply  them 
with  anything  of  your  own,  or  selected  from  other  quarters." 

To  Ills  old  college  friend.  Sir  Robert  Harry  Inglis,  Bart.,  who 
often  corresponded  with  him  on  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
questions,  he  wrote  : — 

"  IIoDNET,  \yh  August  1822. 
"  My  dear  Inglis — Many  thanks  for  your  friendly  letter,  and 
the  solemn  and  striking  paraphrase  1  of  the  'Dies  Ira:.'    I  have 


.'\nonymous. 


86 


BISHOP  HEBER 


more  than  once  thought  over  the  propriety  of  adding  translations 
of  the  Roman  CathoHc  hymns  at  the  end  of  my  collection,  but 
have  been  deterred,  partly  by  the  difficulty  which  I  found  in  doing 
them  into  English  to  my  own  satisfaction,  partly  by  a  doubt  as  to 
the  propriety  of  inserting  anything  which  was  not  intended  and 
adapted  for  congregational  worship.  I  have  also  another  doubt : 
there  is  fine  poetry  and  fine  devotional  feeling  in  all  of  them,  but 
I  am  not  sure  whether  they  are  not  better  to  pillage  and  imitate 
than  to  translate,  inasmuch  as  they  are  all,  more  or  less,  mixed 
with  what  is  languid  and  tedious.  The  '  O  Crux  ave  spes  unica ' 
is  one  of  the  most  spirited,  but  unhappily  it  is  idolatrous  ;  and  so 
is  the  '  Stabat  mater  dolorosa.'  The  '  Dies  Irje,'  as  imitated  by 
W.  Scott,  I  have  in  my  collection.  It  is  less  full  and  faithful,  and 
less  poetical  than  the  one  you  have  sent  me  ;  but  it  might  be 
sung  by  an  English  congregation,  which  the  last  hardly  could. 
But  the  main  beauty  of  the  Romish  hymns  has  always  appeared 
to  me  to  be  their  solemn  rhythm  and  simple  and  affecting 
melodies  ;  and  these  neither  Scott,  nor  your  friend  Mathias,  nor 
any  other  imitator  that  I  know  has  succeeded  in  retaining.  I 
have  often  tried,  but  have  always  been  obliged  to  throw  overboard 
either  words  or  rhythm." 

The  Bishop  of  London's  final  opinion  he  thus  communicated: — 

"HoDNET  Rectory,  DeccDihcr  1822. 

"  My  dear  Milman — .  .  .  Being  accustomed  to  judge  of 
metres  rather  by  his  fingers  than  by  any  other  test,  he  is  less 
tolerant  than  I  could  wish  of  anapa:stics  and  trochaic  lines.  He 
was  surprised,  however,  when  I  showed  him  that  your  '  Chariot ' 
for  Advent  Sunday  rolled  to  the  same  time  with  the  old  104th 
Psalm.  In  other  respects  his  taste  is  exquisite  ;  though,  where 
my  own  lines  were  concerned,  I  thought  him  sometimes  too  severe 
and  uncompromising  a  lover  of  simplicity.  On  the  whole,  how- 
ever, we  have  passed  his  ordeal  triumphantly.  He  encourages  us 
to  proceed,  and  even  suggests  the  advantage  of  Psalms,  two  for 
each  Sunday,  from  the  different  authorised  versions  enumerated 
by  Todd,  to  be  published  in  the  same  volume  with  our  hymns. 
This  we  may  talk  over  when  we  meet.  At  present  a  muse  would 
hardly  venture  over  the  threshold  of  my  study,  though  she  were 
to  come  in  the  disguise  of  a  parish  clerk,  and  escorted  by  Thomas 
Sternhold,  Esq.,  Gentleman-Usher  of  the  Black  Rod. 

"  Many  thanks  for  your  account  of  Mrs.  Hemans's  play.  You 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


87 


have  shown  her  great  and  most  judicious  kindness,  and  I  verily 
believe  her  worthy  of  it,  both  in  disposition  and  talents." 

While  Heber  was  occupied  in  consulting  his  friends  as  to 
a  lithographic  edition  of  his  poems,  the  call  to  Calcutta  stopped 
this  and  other  literary  works.  The  MS.  collection  was  published 
by  Mr.  Murray  after  his  death,  in  1827,  under  the  title  of 
Hymns  written  and  adapted  to  the  Weekly  Chtirdi  Service  of 
the  Year.  Of  the  whole  number,  he  had  written  fifty-seven 
and  Milman  twelve,  and  twenty-nine  had  been  taken  from  other 
sources.  One  he  adapted  from  Jeremy  Taylor ;  one  was  Sir 
Walter  Scott's.  All  are  still  in  common  use  in  Great  Britain 
and  America.!  Milman's  appeared  again  in  the  collected 
edition  of  his  Poetical  Works,  published  in  three  volumes  in 
1837.  His  "Bound  upon  the  accursed  tree,"  "When  our 
heads  are  bowed  with  woe,"  and  "  Ride  on,  ride  on  in  majesty !" 
deserve  all  Heber's  praise. 

In  one  of  his  bright  letters  to  Miss  Charlotte  Dod,  written 
from  Bodryddan,  his  father-in-law's  place  in  North  Wales, 
Heber  thus  reported  his  action  as  to  the  hymns  : — 

"Bodryddan,  2.1th  October. 
"  Many  thanks,  my  dear  Charlotte,  for  your  beautiful  drawing, 
and  the  kind  and  entertaining  verses  which  followed  it.  Till  I 
heard  of  you  at  Cheltenham,  I  could  hardly  feel  sure  of  your  really 
going  there  after  so  many  delays,  and  as  I  have  for  some  time 
thought  such  a  journey  likely  to  do  much  good,  both  to  you  and 
your  father,  I  was  sincerely  glad  to  receive  a  letter  from  you  with 
that  postmark.  I  do  not  think  that  your  account  of  the  society 
there,  with  the  exception  of  your  travelled  beau,  indicates  any- 
thing very  lively,  though  in  e.xpense,  and  I  hope,  therefore,  in 
splendour,  the  Vittoria  Hotel  seems  equal  to  anything  at  Brighton, 
Turnbridge  or  Spa.  But  though  I  do  not  belong  to  that  sect  of 
doctors  or  doctresses  who  reckon  stupidity  conducive  to  health 
either  of  body  or  mind,  I  can  easily  believe  that  some  degree  of 
quiet  is  desirable  for  both,  and  that  you  may  derive  more  advan- 
tage from  early  walks,  sensible  conversation,  and  moderate  gaiety 
than  if  you  had  been  there  in  the  full  tide  of  the  season,  going 
down  twelve  dances  a  night,  raffling  every  morning,  and  environed 


Julian's  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,  p.  503. 


88 


BISHOP  HEIiER 


by  a  whole  ring  of  Irish  baronets  and  staff  officers.  I  am  glad 
you  are  going  to  try  the  tepid  bath,  which  I  know  by  experience 
to  be,  after  illness  or  any  agitation  of  mind  (of  which  last,  at  least, 
you  have  had  a  full  share  this  summer),  even  more  bracing  and 
invigorating  than  the  cold. 

"  It  will  be  strange,  indeed,  if  your  present  journey  and  regi- 
men does  not  put  you  in,  at  least,  as  good  a  plight  as  you  were 
before  your  sister's  illness.  Of  her  it  gave  me  sincere  pleasure 
to  hear  a  continued  favourable  report  from  Anne  and  Soby,^ 
whom  I  met,  as  you  may  have  heard,  at  Wynnstay,^  and  afterwards 
at  Acton,'*  both  well  and  in  good  looks,  though  grievously  knocked 
up,  and  Anne  even  more  so  than  Soby.  Emily's  courage  failed 
her,  or  her  love  of  gaiety  gave  way  to  her  prudence,  and  I  was 
by  myself  at  both  these  places.  I  have  not,  however,  again 
abandoned  her,  and  we  have  both  joined  in  excusing  ourselves 
from  Gwersyllt,  whither  we  were  asked  during  the  week  for  the 
christening  ball  at  Wynnstay.  The  heir,  for  whose  future  pro- 
ficiency in  the  Welsh  tongue  I  was,  as  you  may  recollect,  a 
sponsor  at  the  Eisteddfod,  is  certainly  the  greatest  little  boy  of 
his  age  of  whom  I  have  heard  since  the  days  of  Prince  Gargantua, 
inasmuch  as  he  weighs  four-and-twenty  pounds,  being  very  nearly 
as  much  as  his  sister  at  sixteen  months  old. 

"  Emily  contrives  to  ride  out  every  day  notwithstanding  some 
of  the  worst  weather  that  I  have  ever  witnessed  in  October.  Old 
Sir  R.  Hill  used  to  tell  me  that  during  an  experience  of  near 
seventy  years  of  his  own  observations,  preceded  by  forty  more  of 
a  still  older  Mr.  Romaine,  there  had  never  failed  to  be  twenty-one 
fine  (or,  at  least,  fair)  days  in  this  month  according  to  the  old  style, 
reckoning  from  the  loth  of  October  to  the  loth  of  November.  I 
have  myself  since  fancied  that  I  have  obsened  the  same  thing, 
but  I  am  too  careless  a  naturalist  to  make  my  obser\-ations  very 
valuable. 

"  I  worked  hard  during  the  week  I  was  by  myself  at  home, 
but  while  in  this  place,  and  removed  from  the  necessary  books  of 
reference,  I  have  been  busy  preparing  a  stock  of  sermons  for 
the  remainder  of  the  winter,  which  will,  on  my  return  to  Hodnet, 
leave  me  at  liberty  to  bestow  a  more  undivided  attention  on 
Bishop  Taylor's  Life.  Talking  of  bishops,  I  have  had,  since  we 
met,  a  correspondence  with  the  Bishop  of  London  on  the  subject 
of  my  hymns,  which  cannot,  with  strict  propriety,  be  used  in 
churches,  and  certainly  could  never  obtain  a  general  admittance 


'  Sobieski.         -  The  seat  of  the  Wynns.         '  The  seat  of  the  Cunliffes. 


I'OET  AND  CRITIC 


89 


there  without  a  regular  license  from  the  King,  such  as  was  given 
to  Tate  and  Brady  for  the  new  version  of  the  Psalms.  On  this 
account  I  wrote  to  the  Bishop,  enclosing  my  four  first  hymns  as  a 
sample,  and  asking  his  advice  and  assistance.  His  answer  is  very 
kind  and  encouraging.  He  suggests  some  alterations  in  the  lines 
I  sent  him,  and  recommends  me  to  prepare  the  whole  collection 
for  publication,  under  the  idea  that,  if  it  became,  in  the  first 
instance,  well  known  and  popular,  less  difficulty  would  be  found 
in  obtaining  such  a  license  as  I  wish  for.  I  mean  to  follow  his 
advice,  at  all  events,  so  far  as  bestowing  some  of  my  leisure  during 
the  next  few  months  in  polishing  and  completing  the  series,  but 
I  am  rather  inclined  to  believe  that  when  this  is  done  it  will  be 
best  to  lay  the  MS.  once  before  him  and  some  other  bishops, 
whose  opinion,  once  secured,  will  have  most  weight  with  their 
brethren.  If  the  object  is  answered  of  obtaining  a  well-selected 
and  sanctioned  book  of  hymns  for  the  Church  of  England,  to 
supersede  the  unauthorised  and  often  very  improper  compositions 
now  in  use,  I  can  truly  say  that  I  am  extremely  indifferent 
whether  I  myself  or  anybody  else  has  the  credit  of  the  business, 
and  I  think  it  probable  that  many  of  my  superiors  would  concur 
in  the  measure  more  heartily  if  it  appeared  to  proceed  from  them- 
selves, and  at  their  own  suggestion,  than  if  it  appeared  first  as  the 
work  of  a  private  clergyman.    This  is,  however,  all  confidential. 

"...  I  yesterday  renewed  my  acquaintance  with  the  African 
and  Asiatic  traveller  Mr.  Banks,  whom  we  were  to  have  met  at 
Dinbryn.  He  was  very  young  and  good-looking  when  I  saw  him 
last,  but  is  now  so  dried  and  sunburnt  by  the  sun  and  wind  of  the 
desert,  that  I  should  not  have  known  him.  He  is  very  lively  and 
entertaining,  full  of  knowledge  and  information  relative  to  the 
wild  countries  which  he  has  traversed.  On  the  Nile  he  advanced 
farther  even  than  Burckhardt,  of  whom  he  speaks  very  highly, 
but  says  that  the  difficulties,  insults,  and  injuries  which  are  so 
pathetically  described  in  the  volume  which  I  lent  you  were  mostly 
brought  on  him  by  his  poverty  and  the  meanness  of  his  appear- 
ance. He  speaks  well  of  the  Nubians  on  the  whole,  but  says 
that  they,  like  other  people,  pay  respect  to  wealth  and  apparent 
rank,  and  are  most  hospitable  when  it  is  made  worth  their  while. 
The  ruins  are  very  splendid,  and  very  strange,  and  even  awful 
objects  in  a  country  now  so  poor  and  desolate.  Among  the 
Arabs  and  the  country  south  and  east  of  Palestine  he  was  most 
struck  with  the  tomb  of  Aaron  on  Mount  Hor,  which  is  still,  like 
that  of  Abraham  at  Hebron,  held  in  honour  by  the  Mahometans. 
All  the  towns  keep  their  old  names — Heshbon,  Moab,  etc.,  and 


90 


BISHOP  HEBER 


one  of  the  Arab  sovereigns,  with  whom  he  spent  some  time,  sang 
]5oems  of  his  own  composition  to  the  harp,  as  David  might  have 
done.  One  of  these  was  on  a  former  defeat  of  his  own  tribe,  and 
put  Mr.  B.  much  in  mind  of  the  lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan.^ 
He  complained  a  good  deal  of  hardship,  both  in  bodily  fatigue 
and  being  almost  eat  up  with  vermin,  but  met  with  no  very 
serious  danger.  He  was  not  near  Parga  at  the  time  of  its  evacua- 
tion, but  believes,  from  all  he  heard,  the  story  of  the  singular 
circumstances  which  attended  it.  Miss  Shute  will  be  glad  to 
hear  this.  I  was  disappointed  as  well  as  yourself  at  not  seeing 
my  review  of  Wesley  in  the  last  number  of  the  Quarterly.  Gifford 
acknowledges  having  received  it  in  due  time,  so  that  I  am 
exculpated.     It  is,  however,  to  appear  in  the  next. 

"We  leave  this  place  Thursday  next,  and  pass  two  nights  at 
Hawarden  ^  in  our  way  home.  When  do  you  leave  Cheltenham  ? 
Believe  me,  dear  Charlotte,  ever  yours  affectionately,      R.  H." 

Of  Heber's  fifty-seven  hymns  at  least  thirty  still  hold  a 
place  in  the  front  rank  of  popular  approval  and  use,  and  are 
annotated  under  their  respective  first  lines  in  Julian's  Diction- 
ary of  Hyninology  (1892).  In  this  respect  Heber  stands  side 
by  side  with  Cowper,  who  contributed  sixty-six  hymns  to  the 
Olney  collection.  If  we  take  as  a  test  Roundell  Palmer's 
Book  of  Praise,  published  in  1863,  we  find  that  at  that  time 
of  412  hymns  which  satisfied  Lord  Selborne's  criteria  of  "a 
good  hymn  " — simplicity,  freshness,  and  reality  of  feeling ;  a 
consistent  elevation  of  tone,  and  a  rhythm  easy  and  harmonious, 
but  not  jingling  or  trivial — eleven  are  by  Cowper  and  fourteen 
by  Heber,  whose  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty," 
begins  the  book.  That  hymn  was  pronounced  by  Tennyson 
the  finest  in  the  language,  and  was  sung  at  his  funeral.  "  From 
Greenland's  icy  mountains "  still  expresses  best  the  great 
missionary  call  of  the  English-speaking  peoples.  If  to  these 
fourteen  we  add  the  hymns  which  have  become  more  popular, 
especially  with  children,  in  the  last  thirty  years,  we  have  these  : 

1.  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty. 

2.  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains. 

3.  The  Lord  of  Might,  from  Sinai's  brow. 


The  first  "  Song  of  the  Bow,"  2  Sam.  i.  19-27. 
■■^  Then  the  seat  of  the  Glynnes. 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


91 


4.  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war. 

5.  Hosanna  to  the  living  Lord. 

6.  O  Saviour,  is  Thy  promise  fled  ? 

7.  O  King  of  earth,  and  air,  and  sea. 

8.  Forth  from  the  dark  and  stormy  sky. 

9.  O  Lord,  turn  not  thy  face  away. 

10.  O  most  merciful,  O  most  bountiful. 

1 1 .  God  that  madest  earth  and  heaven. 

1 2.  Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave. 

1 3.  The  winds  were  howling  o'er  the  deep. 

14.  I  praised  the  earth,  in  beauty  seen. 

I  5.  Brightest  and  best  of  the  sons  of  the  morning. 

16.  By  cool  Siloam's  shady  rill. 

17.  Incarnate  Word,  who,  wont  to  dwell. 

18.  The  God  of  glory  walks  His  round. 

19.  The  Lord  will  come,  the  earth  shall  quake. 

20.  O  Saviour,  whom  this  holy  morn. 

21.  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem  !  enthroned  once  on  high. 

"Christopher  North,"  in  the  Nodes,  that  strange  medley, 
was  the  first  critic  to  appreciate  the  poetic  promise  and  power 
of  Reginald  Heber.  The  Palestine  he  happily  describes  as 
"a  flight,  as  upon  angel's  wing,  over  the  Holy  Land.  How 
fine  the  opening  ! "  In  Blackwood's  Magazine  for  1827 
Professor  Wilson  recalls  his  intercourse,  as  a  younger  man  who 
heard  him  recite  the  poem,  with  the  writer  of  Palestine,  which, 
he  declares,  the  judgment  of  the  world  has  placed  at  the  very 
head  of  the  poetry  on  divine  subjects  of  this  age.  In  an 
elaborate  notice  of  the  posthumous  hymns  he  cites  at  length 
nineteen  of  Heber's  from  the  1827  collection,  of  which  sixteen 
appear  in  our  list  above. 

In  the  history  of  English  hymnody  Reginald  Heber  holds 
a  unique  position,  theological  and  literary.  His  collection, 
which  began  to  be  published  in  181 1,  following  all  that  was 
best  in  the  Calvinistic  school  of  Watts,  Cowper,  and  Newton, 
and  in  the  Arminian  school  of  Wesley,  was  the  first  that  was 
Catholic  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  And  he  was  the  first 
to  give  to  English  sacred  poetry  the  lyric  spirit  as  well  as 
objective  element  which  Walter  Scott  had  begun,  and  Byron 
was  applying  in  extreme  forms.  Hence  his  varied  measures, 
which  have  been  pronounced  by  one  critic  to  be  too  flowing 


92 


BISHOP  HERER 


and  florid.  Certainly  at  first  his  ear  was  so  caught  by  Scottish 
airs  that  he  wrote  "  Brightest  and  best  "  to  that  of  "  Here  awa, 
there  awa,  wandering  \Vinie  "  ^  as  he  walked  under  the  avenue 
of  elms  near  the  old  rectory.  Though  the  first,  Heber  was  not 
alone  in  this  application  to  hymnology  of  what  was  best  in 
the  modern  spirit,  literary  and  missionary,  which  came  in  with 
the  nineteenth  century.  Mant  and  Keble,  both  Oxford  men,  of 
Oriel,  were  his  contemporaries,  but  the  noble  strain  of  the 
writer  of  the  anthem,  "  Bright  the  vision  that  delighted,"  and 
the  exquisite  poems  of  the  author  of  The  Christian  Year,  with 
its  "  Sun  of  my  soul,"  did  not  appear  till  Heber's  death.  He 
stands  first,  in  time  and  in  importance,  of  the  Catholic  hymn- 
writers  of  England. 

What  Heber  was  to  Cowper  and  the  Olney  circle,  Jeremy 
Taylor  had  been  to  Milton.  Indeed,  there  is  no  one  whom 
Heber  so  closely  resembled,  in  character,  in  learning,  and  in 
literature,  as  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor,  from  whose  Golden  Grove 
he  took  an  Advent  hymn,  and  whom  Laud  had  made  a 
Fellow  of  All  Souls.  It  was  a  happy  arrangement  when  Messrs. 
Ogle,  Duncan,  and  Co.,  in  1819,  applied  to  the  rector  of 
Hodnet  to  edit  "  The  Complete  and  Collected  Woi-ks  of  Jeremy 
Taylor,  most  of  which  are  now  become  very  scarce,  and  all 
only  to  be  obtained  in  separate  volumes  of  all  sizes  and  descrip- 
tions," and  to  prepare  a  Life  and  Critical  Essay  on  his  Writings. 
With  his  usual  industry  and  his  habit  of  "devouring  books" 
he  was  able  to  issue  the  edition,  Works  and  Life,  in  1822,^ 

■  Heber's  MS.  hymn-book  with  music  is  in  the  possession  of  the  present 
rector  of  Hodnet,  who  has  supplied  this  suggestive  hst — 


Brightest  and  best  .  .  .  . 
The  God  of  Glory  walks  His  round  . 
Forth  from  the  dark 

0  Saviour,  is  Thy  promise  ficd 
OGod,  that  madest  earth  and  heaven 
When  on  her  Maker's  bosom  . 

Sit  Thou  on  My  right  hand 

1  praised  the  earth  .  .  .  . 
Oil,  most  merciful  .  .  .  . 
The  world  is  grown  old  . 

Weep  not,  O  Mother 
Thou  art  gone  to  the  grave 


Original  Air. 
Waytdering  Willie. 
Banks  of  Doon. 
Rousseau' s  Dream. 
Mary's  Dream. 
Gramaehree. 
John  Anderson,  my  Jo. 
Saw  ye  my  Father. 
Haydn. 


Sicilian  Mariners. 
Logic  0'  Buchan. 
Adesie  Fi deles. 
Auld  Robin  Gray. 


-  Heber's  own  edition  of  the  Works  of 


Jeremy  Taylor,  with  the  Life  and 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


93 


and  for  the  first  time  after  two  centuries  to  do  justice  to  this 
great  Enghsh  classic.  "  The  unprecedented  sale  "  of  the  ten 
volumes,  and  "  the  consequent  revival  of  the  popularity  of  that 
eminent  Writer,"  led  Rivingtons  to  publish  the  Life  separately, 
and  it  speedily  ran  through  three  editions.  Mutatis  mutandis 
this  portrait  of  Taylor  by  Heber's  hand  might  stand  for  Heber 
himself. 

"  '  Love,'  as  well  as  'admiration,'  is  said  to  have  'waited  on  him,' 
in  Oxford.  In  Wales,  and  amid  the  mutual  irritation  and  violence 
of  civil  and  religious  hostility,  we  find  him  conciliating,  when  a 
prisoner,  the  favour  of  his  keepers,  at  the  same  time  that  he  pre- 
served, undiminished,  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his  own  party. 
Laud,  in  the  height  of  his  power  and  full-blown  dignity  ;  Charles, 
in  his  deepest  reverses  ;  Hatton,  Vaughan,  and  Conway,  amid 
the  tumults  of  civil  war ;  and  Evelyn,  in  the  tranquillity  of  his 
elegant  retirement,  seem  alike  to  have  cherished  his  friendship 
and  coveted  his  society.  The  same  genius  which  extorted  the 
commendation  of  Jeanes,  for  the  variety  of  its  research  and  vigour 
of  its  argument,  was  also  an  object  of  interest  and  affection  with 
the  young,  and  rich,  and  beautiful  Katharine  Philips  ;  and  few 
writers,  who  have  expressed  their  opinions  so  strongly,  and, 
sometimes,  so  unguardedly  as  he  has  done,  have  lived  and  died 
with  so  much  praise  and  so  little  censure.  Much  of  this  felicity 
may  be  probably  referred  to  an  engaging  appearance  and  a  pleas- 
ing manner  ;  but  its  cause  must  be  sought,  in  a  still  greater 
degree,  in  the  evident  kindliness  of  heart,  which,  if  the  uniform 
tenour  of  a  man's  writings  is  any  index  to  his  character,  must 
have  distinguished  him  from  most  men  living  :  in  a  temper,  to  all 
appearance  warm,  but  easily  conciliated  ;  and  in  that  which,  as  it 
is  one  of  the  least  common,  is  of  all  dispositions  the  most  attrac- 
tive, not  merely  a  neglect,  but  a  total  forgetfulness  of  all  selfish 
feeling.  It  is  this,  indeed,  which  seems  to  have  constituted  the 
most  striking  feature  of  his  character.     Other  men  have  been,  to 


Critical  Examiytation  of  his  Writings,  was  revised  and  corrected  by  the  Rev. 
Charles  Page  Eden,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  in  ten  volumes, 
in  1847-54,  with  indices.  Mr.  Eden  omitted  the  Coti  tern  plat  ions  on  the  State 
of  Man,  the  Christian  Consolation,  since  proved  to  be  Pseudo-Tayloriana, 
and  the  Psalter  of  Dai-iit,  which  was  written  by  Christopher  Hatton,  with 
"  large  assistmv  '  li  uii  I  aylor  probaljly,  in  the  learning  of  the  preface  and 
the  piety  of  ili-  |  1  ■  ■  Mr.  Page  Eden  added,  as  undoubtedly  Taylor's,  a 
Tract  on  th,  I\  the  Altar,  M\  <:sci\y  Sermon  on  I.iike  xiii.  2J-24, 

"  the  gate  to  In  aw  n  a  btrait  gate,"  afterwards  inserted  in  the  Life  of  Christ. 


94 


BISHOP  HEBER 


judge  from  their  writings  and  their  hves,  to  all  appearance,  as 
religious,  as  regular  in  their  devotions,  as  diligent  in  the  perform- 
ance of  all  which  the  laws  of  God  or  man  require  from  us  ;  but 
with  Taylor  his  duty  seems  to  have  been  a  delight,  his  piety  a 
passion.  His  faith  was  the  more  vivid  in  proportion  as  his  fancy 
was  more  intensely  vigorous  ;  with  him  the  objects  of  his  hope  and 
reverence  were  scarcely  unseen  or  future  ;  his  imagination  daily 
conducted  him  to  'diet  with  gods,'  and  elevated  him  to  the  same 
height  above  the  world,  and  the  same  nearness  to  ineffable  things, 
which  Milton  ascribes  to  his  allegorical  '  cherub  Contemplation.' 

"  Taylor  was  neither  an  enthusiast  nor  a  bigot  ;  and  if  there 
are  some  few  of  his  doctrines  from  which  our  assent  is  withheld 
by  the  decisions  of  the  church  and  the  language  of  Scripture, 
even  these  (while  in  themselves  they  are  almost  altogether  specu- 
lative, and  such  as  could  exercise  no  injurious  influence  on  the 
essentials  of  faith  or  the  obligations  to  holiness)  may  be  said  to 
have  a  leaning  to  the  side  of  piety,  and  to  have  their  foundation 
in  a  love  for  the  Deity,  and  a  desire  to  vindicate  his  goodness,  no 
less  than  to  excite  mankind  to  aspire  after  greater  degrees  of 
perfection. 

"  His  munificent  charity  was  in  part  shown  by  his  undertaking, 
at  his  own  expense,  the  rebuilding  of  his  cathedral.  It  is  also 
warmly  praised  by  Rust,  who  tells  us  that,  when  the  great  prefer- 
ments which  he  enjoyed  were  compared  with  the  small  portions 
which  he  left  to  his  daughters,  charity  would  be  proved  to  have 
been  the  principal  steward  of  his  revenues.  .  .  . 

"  In  conformity  with  the  same  simple  and  disinterested  char- 
acter, we  find  him  at  one  time  contributing  his  endeavours  to 
frame  a  grammar  for  children,  at  another  composing  prayers  and 
hymns  for  the  young  and  uninstructed.  '  If,'  were  his  words  on 
one  occasion,  '  you  do  not  choose  to  fill  your  boy's  head  with 
something,  believe  me  the  devil  will ! '  The  same  temper  seems 
to  have  made  him  affable  and  facetious  with  his  inferiors  in  rank 
and  knowledge.  '  It  was  pleasant,'  says  his  secretary  Alcock, 
'  to  hear  my  lord  talk  with  these  poor  people,  the  friends  of 
Haddock,  on  the  subject  of  their  relation's  spectre.' .  .  . 

"  It  is  on  devotional  and  moral  subjects  that  the  peculiar  char- 
acter of  his  mind  is  most,  and  most  successfully,  developed.  To 
this  service  he  devotes  his  most  glowing  language,  to  this  his 
aptest  illustrations  ;  his  thoughts  and  his  words  at  once  burst 
into  a  flame  when  touched  by  the  coals  of  this  altar  ;  and  whether 
he  describes  the  duties,  or  dangers,  or  hopes  of  man,  or  the 
mercy,  power,  and  justice  of  the  Most  High  ;  whether  he  exhorts 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


95 


or  instructs  his  brethren,  or  offers  up  his  supplications  in  their 
behalf  to  the  common  Father  of  all — his  conceptions  and  his  ex- 
pressions belong  to  the  loftiest  and  most  sacred  description  of 
poetry,  of  which  they  only  want,  what  they  cannot  be  said  to  need, 
the  name  and  the  metrical  arrangement. 

"  It  is  this  distinctive  excellence,  still  more  than  the  other 
qualifications  of  learning  and  logical  acuteness,  which  has  placed 
him,  even  in  that  age  of  gigantic  talent,  on  an  eminence  superior 
to  any  of  his  immediate  contemporaries  ;  which  has  exempted 
him  from  the  comparative  neglect  into  which  the  dry  and  repul- 
sive learning  of  Andrews  and  Sanderson  has  fallen  ;  which  has 
left  behind  the  acuteness  of  Hales,  and  the  imaginative  and 
copious  eloquence  of  Bishop  Hall,  at  a  distance  hardly  less  than 
the  cold  elegance  of  Clark,  and  the  dull  good  sense  of  Tillotson  ; 
and  has  seated  him,  by  the  almost  unanimous  estimate  of  posterity, 
on  the  same  lofty  elevation  with  Hooker  and  with  Barrow. 

"  Of  such  a  triumvirate,  who  shall  settle  the  precedence  ?  Yet 
it  may,  perhaps,  be  not  far  from  the  truth  to  observe  that  Hooker 
claims  the  foremost  rank  in  sustained  and  classic  dignity  of  style, 
in  political  and  pragmatical  wisdom  ;  that  to  Barrow  the  praise 
must  be  assigned  of  the  closest  and  clearest  views,  and  of  a  taste 
the  most  controlled  and  chastened  ;  but  that  in  imagination,  in 
interest,  in  that  which  more  properly  and  exclusively  deserves  the 
name  of  genius,  Taylor  is  to  be  placed  before  either.  The  first 
awes  most,  the  second  convinces  most,  the  third  persuades  and 
delights  most ;  and  (according  to  the  decision  of  one  whose  own 
rank  among  the  ornaments  of  English  literature  yet  remains  to  be 
determined  by  posterity)  Hooker  is  the  object  of  our  reverence. 
Barrow  of  our  admiration,  and  Jeremy  Taylor  of  our  love."  > 

"Very  skilful  is  Heber's  analysis  of  Jeremy  Taylor's  writings, 
practical,  theological,  casuistic,  and  devotional,  and  most 
searching  and  frank  is  his  criticism  of  their  doctrines  and 
defects.  The  Life  of  Christ  or  the  G7-eat  Exemplar,  the  Holy 
Living  and  Dying,  the  Liberty  of  Prophesying,  and  the  Diictor 
Dichitantium,  the  sermons  and  the  controversial  and  devotional 
books,  are  reviewed  in  a  style  which  reveals  in  every  paragraph 
the  scholar  and  the  divine  indeed,  but  with  a  modern  literary 
grace  which  attracts  the  layman  and  the  man  of  the  world. 
For  both  Taylor  and  Heber  held  that  theology  is  rather  a 

'  'Q,Ky)pov  jjlv  (ji^iji,  6a.vii.i.^w  U  Bappovov,  Kal  0cXcS  TaiXupov.  Note  to 
Parr's  Spital  Sermon. 


96 


BISHOP  HEBER 


divine  life  than  divine  knowledge.  Of  both  is  the  saying  true, 
which  accompanies  Lombart's  portrait  of  the  author  of  the 
Dudor  Dubitafitmm  in  the  folio  edition,^  Non  magna  loqidvmr, 
sed  viviiims.     Nihil  opitiionis  gratia,  omnia  conscientice  faciam. 

Coleridge's  famous  parallel  between  Milton  and  Taylor  -  is, 
in  its  degree,  applicable  to  Heber.  "  Differing  so  widely  and 
almost  so  contrariantly,  wherein  did  these  great  men  agree, 
wherein  did  they  resemble  each  other  ?  In  genius,  in  learning, 
in  unfeigned  piety,  in  blameless  purity  of  life,  and  in  benevo- 
lent aspirations  and  purposes  for  the  moral  and  temporal  im- 
provement of  their  fellow-creatures  !  Both  of  them  composed 
hymns  and  psalms  proportioned  to  the  capacity  of  common 
congregations ;  both  set  the  glorious  example  of  publicly  re- 
commending and  supporting  general  toleration  and  the  liberty 
both  of  the  pulpit  and  the  press." 

By  this  time  Heber  was  a  practised  critic,  having  almost 
from  the  first  been  one  of  the  most  reliable  of  the  staff  of  the 
Quarterly  Review.  Richard  Heber,  when  he  happened  to 
spend  the  winter  of  1800  in  Edinburgh  book-hunting  in  such 
stores  as  that  then  kept  by  Archibald  Constable,  soon  after  the 
great  publisher,  became  the  fast  friend  and  coadjutor  of  Walter 
Scott,  then  engaged  in  collecting  for  his  Border  ATinstrclsy. 
How  Scott  became  Reginald  Heber's  guest  at  All  Souls  we 
have  seen.  When  "  John  Murray  of  Fleet  Street,  a  young 
bookseller  of  capital  and  enterprise,"  enlisted  him  in  1808  in 
the  project  of  the  Quarterly  Heview,  Scott  wrote  to  Charles 
Kirkpatrick  Sharpe :  "  The  Hebers  are  engaged,  item, 
Rogers,  Southey,  Moore  (Anacreon),  and  others  whose  reputa- 
tions Jeffrey  has  murdered,  and  who  are  rising  to  cry  woe 
upon  him,  like  the  ghosts  in  King  Richard."  Reginald 
Heber,  at  least,  had  no  such  motive,  but  he  was,  at  first, 
anxious  to  utilise  the  knowledge  of  Russia  and  the  East  which 
he  had  acquired  by  travel.  His  first  review  appeared  in  the 
second  number  for  1809,  on  Kerr  Porter's  Travelling  Sketches 
in  Russia  and  Srceden  during  the  years  1805-08.  To  John 
Thornton,  who  had  congratulated  him  on  the  article,  he  thus 
replied  : — 

'  Fourth  edition,  London,  printed  by  J.  L.  for  Luke  Meredith  at  the 
Star  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  1696. 

2  In  his  "Apologetic  Preface"  to  Fire,  Famine,  and  Slaughler. 
^  Memoir  and  Correspondence  of  the  late  John  Murray,  1891. 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


97 


"  HoDNET  Rectory,  lol/i  January  1810. 

"  I  am  much  gratified  with  the  attention  you  have  paid  to  my 
review,  and  with  your  approbation  of  it.  The  poem  on  Talavera 
is  very  spirited,  and  only  unfortunate  in  being  necessarily  com- 
pared with  Scott  ;  the  author  is  understood  to  be  Mr.  Croker. 
The  best  article,  I  think,  in  the  Review  is  the  critique  on  Parr, 
which,  both  in  wit,  taste,  and  good  sense,  is  superior  to  almost 
everything  of  Jeffrey's.  I  intend,  as  far  as  my  necessary  business 
will  give  mc  time,  to  contribute  frequently  to  the  Quar/crly  Review, 
as  it  ser\-es  to  keep  up  my  acquaintance  with  se\  eral  interesting 
suljjects,  which  I  might  else,  perhaps,  neglect. 

"  I  agree  with  you  in  thinking  that  my  Russian  notes  are  made 
more  conspicuous  in  the  Qiiartcrly  Reznew  of  Clarke's  Travels  than 
the  proportion  they  bear  to  the  rest  of  the  work  would  lead  one 
to  expect.  You  will  not  wonder,  however,  that  he  himself  should 
be  treated  coolly,  when  I  tell  you  that  the  reviewer  is  a  staunch 
Muscovite,  and  an  '  old  courtier  of  the  Queen's,'  during  the  most 
splendid  days  of  Catherine.  With  the  Edinl'ur^/i  Re7'ieu',  as  far 
as  good  words  go,  both  he  and  I  have  reason  to  be  satisfied.  I 
do  not,  howev  er,  think  that,  even  there,  they  have  been  sufficiently 
accjuaiuted  with  their  subject  to  appreciate  justly  his  knowledge 
of  antiquities,  the  liveliness  of  his  sketches  of  manners,  and  his 
power  of  comparing  one  nation  with  another,  which  are,  I  think, 
his  strongholds.  And  they  show  a  little  too  plainly  their  constant 
wish  to  make  everything  a  handle  for  politics." 

This  article  was  followed  by  one  on  Turkey,  by  another  on 
Gustavus  IV.  of  Sweden,  by  another  on  Russia,  and  by  his 
translations  of  Pindar.  The  last  Mr.  Murray  published  sepa- 
rately in  181 2,  along  with  the  "Palestine,"  "Europe,"  and 
"  The  Passage  of  the  Red  Sea,"  with  considerable  notes,  in  a 
beautiful  volume,  Poems  and  Translations  by  Reginald  Heber, 
which  bore  this  dedication  :  "  To  Richard  Heber,  Esquire, 
the  following  Poems  are  dedicated,  as  a  tribute  of  gratitude  to 
the  talent,  taste,  and  affection  which  he  has  uniformly  exerted 
in  encouraging  and  directing  the  studies  of  his  Brother."  The 
poet's  preface  thus  concluded :  "  The  pursuits  of  a  life  which, 
though  retired,  has  not  been  idle,  joined  to  the  peculiar 
duties  of  the  author's  profession,  have  permitted  few  oppor- 
tunities of  indulging  in  the  relaxation  of  poetry.  If  the  future 
should  present,  as  is  far  from  improbable,  still  fewer  than 

H 


98 


BISHOP  HEBER 


these,  and  forbid  his  adding  to  the  following  trifles  anything 
more  worthy  of  fame,  he  trusts,  at  least,  that  nothing  will  be 
detected  in  his  pages  repugnant  to  the  first  interests  of  man- 
kind, to  the  cause  of  Liberty  or  Religion." 

Heber's  review  of  De  L'Allemagne  in  1814  led  Madame 
de  Stael  to  appeal  to  John  Murray  for  the  name  of  the  critic ; 
of  all  the  reviews  on  her  work,  she  said,  this  was  the  only  one 
which  had  raised  her  opinion  of  the  talents  and  acquirements 
of  the  English.  Nothing  abler  or  more  comprehensive  was 
written  on  Persia,  on  the  publication  of  the  great  work  of 
Sir  John  Malcolm,  than  Heber's  review  of  those  two  splendid 
quartos  in  April  18 16.  Pressed  by  a  correspondent  to  utter 
a  warning  as  to  the  danger  to  the  liberties  of  Europe  of 
an  alliance  between  Russia  and  France,  he  feared  less  than 
that  the  rolling  down  of  the  wave  from  the  north  against  the 
bulwark  of  British  India.  He  thought  that  the  first  check 
which  the  Russian  monarchy  might  receive  in  the  west  would 
be  followed  by  a  simultaneous  rising  in  all  her  eastern  pro- 
vinces. "  At  any  rate,  some  centuries  are  likely  to  elapse 
before  the  Muscovite  terminus  can  have  advanced  in  this 
manner  to  the  Indian  Ocean."  In  the  eighty  years  since  that 
was  written  the  advance  has  exceeded  the  wildest  anticipations. 

In  181 7  his  paper  on  Southey's  Brazil  appeared,  and  in 
1820  his  criticism  of  Milman's  poem,  The  Fall  of  Jerusalem. 
As  he  wrote  that  generous  eulogy  Heber  must  have  thought 
of  his  own  youthful  triumph.  With  Byron  in  his  mind,  he 
thus  closed  his  review  :  "  While  by  a  strange  predilection  for 
the  coarser  half  of  manicheism  one  of  the  mightiest  spirits  of 
the  age  has  apparently  devoted  himself  and  his  genius  to  the 
adornment  and  extension  of  evil,  we  may  well  be  exhilarated 
by  the  accession  of  a  new  and  potent  ally  to  the  cause  of 
human  virtue  and  happiness,  whose  example  may  furnish 
an  additional  evidence  that  purity  and  weakness  are  not 
synonymous,  and  that  the  torch  of  genius  never  burns  so 
bright  as  when  duly  kindled  at  the  altar."  In  a  letter  to 
R.  J.  Wilmot  Horton  he  thus  introduces  the  most  representa- 
tive of  all  his  reviews  : — 

"  HoDNET  Rectory,  26///  May  1820. 
"My  present  theme  is  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley  —  a  theme 
much  more  copious,  and  one  which  interests  me  a  good  deal. 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


99 


How  I  shall  succeed  in  it  I  do  not  yet  know ;  it  is  no  easy  matter 
to  give  Wesley  his  due  praise,  at  the  same  time  that  I  am  to  dis- 
tinguish all  that  was  blamable  in  his  conduct  and  doctrines  ;  and 
it  is  a  very  difficult  matter  indeed  to  write  on  such  a  subject  at  all 
without  offending  one  or  both  of  the  two  fiercest  and  foolishest 
parties  that  ever  divided  a  Church — the  High  Churchmen  and  the 
Evangelicals.  .  .  . 

"Wilson  'of  the  palms  and  plague'  is  standing  for  a  Pro- 
fessorship of  History  at  Edinburgh.  It  was  reported  that  Sir  James 
Mackintosh  was  to  be  his  rival ;  but  Wilson,  in  a  letter  to  me, 
makes  no  mention  of  this,  nor  does  my  brother." 

With  a  fine  discrimination  and  catholic  impartiality,  the 
reviewer,  in  an  essay  which  covers  fifty-five  pages,  holds  the 
balance  between  the  Arminian  John  AVesley,  with  his  extreme 
heresy  of  sinless  perfection,  and  the  Calvinist  George  White- 
field,  with  the  other  extreme  of  predestination  and  reprobation. 
^Vith  admiring  satisfaction,  Heber  quotes  the  famous  foundery 
sermon  on  "  Free  Grace,"  in  which  Wesley  preached  the  true 
"decree"  as  William  Carey  and  Andrew  Fuller  learned  to 
preach  it,  and  he  himself  went  to  India  to  proclaim  it — God 
commandctli  all  men  everywhere  to  repent.  The  reviewer's  con- 
clusion was  that  no  common  blessing  must  wait  on  the  man 
who,  while  lie  avoids  schism,  endeavours  to  rival  John  Wesley 
in  piety,  self-denial,  activity,  and  boundless  charity. 

Heber's  letters  to  Miss  Charlotte  Dod,  in  these  years,  were 
full  of  literary  and  even  political  news,  expressed  with  brotherly 
frankness  and  affection. 


A  BIRTHDAY  SONNET 

"  27//;  Decemlei: 
And  shall  a  wreath  of  flattering  verse  be  twined 
To  greet  thy  natal  morning,  Charlotte  ?  No, 
In  sterner  notes  my  solemn  verse  shall  flow, 
Austere,  perchance,  yet,  trust  me,  not  unkind  ; 
And  I  will  urge  thcc,  born  amid  the  snow 
Of  grim  December  and  his  wintry  wind, 
To  bid  thy  breast  with  true  devotion  glow  ; 
That,  like  the  fabled  thorn,  whose  early  flowers, 
'Mid  saintly  Avalon's  deserted  towers, 


lOO 


BISHOP  HEBER 


In  honour  of  the  Saviour's  advent  blow, 
Thus  may  thy  beauty  and  thy  mental  powers 
Bloom  to  His  praise  who  could  such  gifts  bestow  ; 
And,  as  on  His  thy  birthnight  follows  near, 
Him  follow  still  in  love,  and  faith,  and  fear." 

In  sending  her  a  new  volume  of  Venn's  sermons,  he  describes 
the  author  as  "an  excellent  man,  who  deserved  the  name  of 
Evangelical  not  in  the  sense  of  a  foolish  and  presumptuous 
|)arty  distinction,  but  as  the  most  honourable  name  of  a 
Christian  minister." 

"Lincoln's  Inn,  lyd November  1822. 
".  .  .  Poor  Gifford  has  been  extremely  ill,  and  I  have  had 
again  to  decline  in  form  the  management  of  the  Quarterly 
Review.  (This  is  most  secret.)  It  has  been  a  matter  of 
grave  deliberation  who  shall  undertake  it,  in  the  first  place  as 
Gifford's  coadjutor,  afterwards,  probably,  as  his  successor.  My 
first  advice  has  been  that  it  should  not  be  a  clergyman  ;  my 
next  was  to  recommend  a  young  man  of  great  talents,  but  perhaps 
too  young.  I  believe  the  choice  will  fall  on  a  Mr.  Coleridge,  son 
of  the  crazy  poet  so  named,  and  nephew  to  Southey.  He  is 
spoken  of  as  a  very  clever  man.  I  only  hope  he  will  be  sufficiently 
undutiful  to  reject  all  offered  communications  from  his  father,  and 
to  prune  his  uncle's  essays  to  one-half  their  original  length.  I 
was  once  inclined  to  suggest  Lockhart,  the  editor  of  Biackiuood, 
and  author  of  Peter's  Letters;  but  everybody  cried  out  that  he 
was  too  great  a  blackguard.  Gifford  is,  however,  now  well  enough 
to  decide  for  himself,  and  again  to  resume,  at  least  for  the  present, 
the  management  of  his  Review.  I  have  been  extremely  busy 
since  I  came  to  town  with  an  article  on  the  Church  of  England, 
its  revenues,  etc.  My  review  of  Lord  Byron  has  been  verj' 
variously  spoken  of.  I  do  not  think  the  people  whom  I  should 
most  wish  to  please  are  satisfied  with  it.  They  say  (as  my  dear 
sister  did)  that  I  am  too  favourable  to  him,  and  speak  too  mildly 
of  infidelity  and  atheism.  I  did  not  mean  to  do  so,  and  I  will 
own  I  have  been  greatly  mortified  at  finding  this  opinion  prevalent. 
Nor  is  my  mortification  diminished  by  finding  the  soi-disant 
'  liberals '  very  complaisant  in  their  expressions  concerning  it. 
Heaven  grant  that  this  disappointment  may  make  me  more 
cautious  hereafter,  as  well  as  more  indifferent  to  the  opinions  of 
mankind  !  I  certainly  wished  to  conciliate  the  half-infidels,  but 
I  had  not  the  smallest  thought  of  giving  ground  to  them  ;  nor  do 


POET  AND  CRITIC 


lOI 


I  think  I  have.  Yet  I  find  the  unknown  author  is  suspected  of 
having  done  so. 

I  passed,  last  week,  a  pleasant,  quiet  day  with  the  Bishop  of 
London  and  his  family  at  his  country  house  at  Fulham,  and 
should  have  liked,  if  I  had  had  time,  to  stay  longer.  We  read 
over  the  Hymns  together,  and  he  suggested  many  alterations, 
some  of  which  I  like,  others  I  cannot  agree  with  ;  yet  his  general 
principle  is  very  good — that,  namely,  in  all  hymns  and  prayers  we 
are  to  think  of  religion  first  and  poetry  afterwards  ;  and  that  the 
cause  of  religion  is  best  served  by  great  simplicity  of  expression. 
Of  my  own  hymns  he  likes  the  most  simple  best,  such  as  that  on 
the  Innocents,!  on  St.  John  Evangelist,"  and  '  Oh,  Saviour,  is  thy 
promise  fled  ?'  To  Milman's  he  was  less  favourable  than  I  could 
wish.  He  said  they  were  very  fine  poems,  but  rather  poems 
than  hymns.  My  dear  sistei-'s  hymn  on  Good  Friday  ^  he  liked 
extremely;  'from  its  simplicity,'  he  said,  'and  because  it  seemed 
to  come  from  the  heart.'  He  asked  whose  it  was,  and  I  had 
pleasure  (as  I  always  have)  in  saying  some  little  of  what  I  think 
of  you.  He  strongly  encourages  me  to  add  a  selection  of  psalms 
to  my  hymns,  and  advises  that  some  of  what  he  called  '  the 
poems  '  should  be  thrown  into  an  appendix,  under  the  name  not 
of  'hymns'  but  'religious  poetry.'  During  the  whole  visit  I 
was  much  struck  by  his  calm,  quiet  manner  and  his  apparent 
earnestness  while  talking  on  religious  subjects.  In  quoting 
different  devotional  passages  of  the  Psalms,  his  eyes  glistened 
and  his  voice  faltered  in  a  manner  which  put  me  in  mind  of  our 
excellent  friend  Bridge.  Alas  !  Charlotte,  when  I  find  so  many 
really  good  people  in  the  world,  how  much  do  I  feel  ashamed  of 
myself.  Pray  for  me,  dear  friend,  that  while  I  am  preaching  to 
others  I  may  not  myself  be  a  castaway  ! 

"  On  inquiring  at  Cholmondeley  House,  I  find  they  are  none 
of  them  in  town.  I  shall,  therefore,  keep  Lord  R.'s  book  till  my 
return  to  town  next  term,  when  I  will  leave  it  in  due  form.  I 
am  ashamed  to  say  I  have  made  but  little  progress  in  reading  it, 
but  when  I  tell  you  that  I  found  it  necessary  to  rewrite  both  of 
my  two  latter  sermons,  in  addition  to  my  labour  bestowed  on  my 
hymns  and  the  Review,  you  will  not  wonder,  nor  think  me  lazy. 


"  Oh  !  weep  not  o'er  thy  children's  tomb  ; 

Oh  !  Rachel,  weep  not  so." 
' '  O  God  !  who  gav'st  Thy  servant  grace 

Amid  the  storms  of  life  distrest." 
' '  O  more  than  merciful  !  whose  bounty  gave 
Thy  guiltless  self  to  glut  the  greedy  grave  !  " 


I02 


BISHOP  HEBER 


By  all  which  I  see  the  work  is  candid,  plausible,  and  written  in  a 
good  spirit.  I  do  not,  however,  think  it  very  clever.  Like  all 
modern  Calvinists  the  author  skips  the  main  difficulty,  and  is,  in 
fact,  very  nearly  an  Arminian  in  his  principles,  though,  for  reasons 
best  known  to  himself,  he  often  uses  Calvinistic  language,  and 
professes  himself  one  of  the  party.  His  distinction  between  moral 
and  natural  defectiveness,  if  it  means  anything,  is  an  abandonment 
of  his  side  of  the  question. 

"  As  to  the  poetry  which  you  called  on  me  to  furnish,  I  really 
can  do  no  good  with  it.  The  argument  is  so  whimsical,  a  sort  of 
dirge  on  occasion  of  a  zucdding,  and  the  vanity  and  bad  taste  of 
the  mother  who  desires  to  have  her  feelings  on  such  an  occasion 
so  recorded  are  so  remarkable,  that  the  more  I  think  of  it  the  more 
I  am  convinced  (and  so  you  will  be  too  on  second  thoughts)  that 
I  could  not  write  verses  on  such  a  subject  without  some  loss  of 
what  little  reputation  for  talent  I  have.  Tell  the  lady  (you  may 
tell  her  with  perfect  truth)  that  I  have  been  very  busy,  but  that  I 
have  tried,  but  could  not  please  myself  Forgive  me,  dear  Char- 
lotte, this  frankness.  You,  I  am  sure,  will  believe  me  when  I  say 
I  have,  for  your  sake,  done  my  utmost.    But  the  thing  is  hopeless. 

"Lord  Byron  and  Lord  J.  Russell  have  published  each  a 
tragedy  within  these  two  days  :  the  first  very  hannless,  as  far  as 
I  have  yet  read  it,  but  with  very  little  talent  ;  and  the  second  is  a 
bare  respectable  piece  of  mediocrity,  which  the  Whigs  will  praise, 
and  very  few,  either  Whigs  or  Tories,  will  read  through.  Lord 
B.  has  attracted  more  attention  by  his  strange  funeral  of  his 
natural  daughter,  whose  body  he  sent  over,  embalmed  and  divided 
into  three  pieces,  with  directions  that  she  should  be  buried  in  a 
particular  part  of  Harrow  Churchyard,  with  a  monument  on  a 
particular  part,  which  he  carefully  pointed  out,  of  the  church, 
opposite  the  pulpit,  describing  her  as  '  the  beloved  daughter 
of  .  .  .'  It  seems  Lady  Byron  has  some  time  been  a  fre- 
quenter of  Harrow  Church,  and  a  great  admirer  of  the  vicar,  Mr. 
Cunningham,  and  her  kind  husband  has  thus  contrived  that 
her  usual  way  to  church  will  lead  her  close  to  the  grave  of  his 
natural  child,  and  that  from  the  vicarage  pew  her  eyes  must  always 
meet  this  inscription." 

The  following  Bow-meeting  song  has  a  special  interest,  for 
it  was  sung  at  Hawarden  Castle,  in  Flintshire,  then  the  seat  of 
Sir  Stephen  Glynne,  Bart.  The  occasion  was  a  meeting  of 
the  "  Royal  British  Bowmen,"  a  society  of  much  interest,  but 
whose  history  is  now  obscure  : — 


POET  AND  CRITIC  103 

HAWARDEN  CASTLE— A  SONG  OF  THE  BOW 

"  By  yon  castle  wall,  'mid  the  breezes  of  morning, 
The  genius  of  Cambria  stray'd  pensive  and  slow  ■ 
The  oak-wreath  was  wither'd  her  tresses  adorning, 

And  the  wind  through  its  leaves  sigh'd  its  murmur  of  woe. 
She  gaz'd  on  her  mountains  with  filial  devotion, 
She  gaz'd  on  her  Dee  as  he  roll'd  to  the  ocean, — 
And,  '  Cambria  !  poor  Cambria  ! '  she  cried  with  emotion, 
'  Thou  yet  hast  thy  country,  thy  harp,  and  thy  bow  ! ' 

"  '  Sweep  on,  thou  proud  stream,  with  thy  billows  all  hoary ; 

As  proudly  my  warriors  have  rush'd  on  the  foe  ; 
But  feeble  and  faint  is  the  sound  of  their  glory. 

For  time,  like  thy  tide,  has  its  ebb  and  its  flow. 
Ev'n  now,  while  I  watch  thee,  thy  beauties  are  fading  ; 
The  sands  and  the  shallows  thy  course  are  invading  ; 
Where  the  sail  swept  the  surges  the  sea-bird  is  wading  ; 

And  thus  hath  it  fared  with  the  land  of  the  bow  ! 

"  '  Smile,  smile,  ye  dear  hills,  'mid  your  woods  and  your  flowers, 
Whose  heather  lies  dark  in  the  morn's  dewy  glow  ! 
A  time  must  await  you  of  tempest  and  showers, 

An  autumn  of  mist,  and  a  winter  of  snow  ! 
For  me,  though  the  whirlwind  has  shiver'd  and  cleft  nie, 
Of  wealth  and  of  empire  the  stranger  bereft  me, 
Yet  Saxon, — proud  Saxon, — thy  fury  has  left  me 
Worth,  valour,  and  beauty,  the  harp  and  the  bow  I 

"  '  Ye  towers,  on  whose  rampire,  all  ruin'd  and  riven, 
The  wall-flower  and  woodbine  so  lavishly  blow ; 

I  have  seen  when  your  banner  waved  broad  to  the  Heaven, 
And  kings  found  your  faith  a  defence  from  the  foe  ; 

Oh,  loyal  in  grief,  and  in  danger  unshaken, 

For  ages  still  true,  though  for  ages  forsaken. 

Yet,  Cambria,  thy  heart  may  to  gladness  awaken. 

Since  thy  monarch  has  smil'd  on  the  harp  and  the  bow  ! '  " 

In  the  year  1839  Catherine,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Sir 
Stephen  Glynne,  was  married  to  William  Ewart  Gladstone, 
M.P.  Mrs.  Gladstone  was  a  girl  when  Heber  first  used  to  visit 
at  the  castle.    Mr.  Gladstone  had  learned  even  then  to  admire 


BISHOP  HEBER 


his  character  and  to  dehght  in  his  poems,  one  of  which  he 
afterwards  translated  into  Latin.  Writing  to  the  present 
biographer  on  15th  September  1894,  Mr.  Gladstone  remarks: 
"  I  am  glad  you  are  busied  with  a  record  of  Bishop 
Heber,  who  both  adorned  and  helped  to  elevate  the 
Church  of  England.  I  enclose  a  brief  note  by  my  wife  of  such 
recollection  of  him  as  she  has  brought  down  from  early  child- 
hood." 

Mrs.  Gladstone's  words  are  these :  "  I  could  not  have 
been  more  than  ten  years  old  when  Bishop  Heber  first  visited 
Hawarden  Castle,  in  1820,  I  believe;  but  words  spoken  of 
him  by  my  mother  have  not  faded.  They  have  left  a  vivid 
impression.  In  181 5  she  had  become  a  widow.  As  was 
natural  at  the  time  of  so  sore  a  trial,  intercourse  such  as  was 
now  offered  should  be  of  special  value;  it  was  undoubtedly  so. 
I  recall  the  Bishop's  singular  gifts,  his  greatness  uniting 
persuasion  and  charm.  I  recall  how  comforting  and  precious 
his  words  were  to  my  mother;  through  her  conversation  they 
are  remembered  by  me.  Neither  have  I  forgotten  the  deep 
interest  felt  on  hearing  he  was  to  be  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  nor 
the  awe  and  sadness  on  the  tidings  of  his  death." 


CHAPTER  VI 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND  TO  THE  EAST 

Year  by  year  was  Reginald  Heber  trained  for  missionary  wori< 
in  the  East.  He  was  a  lad  of  sixteen  when  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  was  founded,  and  when  he  was  Rector  of 
Hodnet  he  became  one  of  its  earlier  members.  When,  hardly 
of  age,  he  won  his  first  triumph  in  the  Sheldonian  Theatre, 
Oxford,  lie  made  his  Palestine  a  missionary  poem.  There  are 
no  lines  in  English  literature  more  compassionate  for  the  Jew 
than  the  passage  with  which  the  8oth  Psalm  inspired  the  youth- 
ful singer : — 

"  O  Thou,  their  Guide,  their  Father,  and  their  Lord, 
Loved  for  Thy  mercies,  for  Thy  power  adored  1 
If  at  Thy  name  the  waves  forgot  their  force, 
And  refluent  Jordan  sought  his  trembUng  source  ; 
If  at  Thy  name,  like  sheep,  the  mountains  fled. 
And  haughty  Sirion  bowed  his  marble  head. 
To  Israel's  woes  a  pitying  ear  incline. 
And  raise  from  earth  Thy  long-neglected  vine  !  " 

There  are  no  nobler  strains  expressive  of  the  Messianic  hope, 
its  certainty  and  its  glory,  than  this  missionary  psean  : — 

"  Nor  vain  their  hope, — bright  beaming  through  the  sky 
Burst  in  full  blaze  the  Dayspring  from  on  high. 
Earth's  utmost  isles  exulted  at  the  sight, 
And  crowding  nations  drank  the  Orient  light. 
Lo  !  star-led  chiefs  Assyrian  odours  bring, 
And  bending  Magi  seek  their  infant  King  ! 


io6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Marked  ye  where,  hovering  o'er  His  radiant  head 
The  dove's  white  wings  celestial  gIor>'  shed  ? 
Daughter  of  Sion  !  virgin  Queen,  rejoice  ! 
Clap  the  glad  hands  and  lift  the  exulting  voice  ! 
He  comes,  but  not  in  regal  splendour  drest, 
The  haughty  diadem,  the  Syrian  vest ; 
Not  armed  in  flame,  all  glorious  from  afar, 
Of  hosts  the  chieftain,  and  the  lord  of  war  ; 
Messiah  comes,  let  furious  discord  cease  ; 
Be  peace  on  earth  before  the  Prince  of  Peace  ; 
Disease  and  anguish  feel  his  blest  control, 
And  howling  fiends  release  the  tortured  soul  ; 
The  beams  of  gladness  hell's  dark  caves  illume. 
And  mercy  broods  above  the  distant  gloom." 

The  year  after  these  words  sounded  through  the  theatre 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  was  founded  in  London, 
with  the  retired  Governor-General  of  India,  Lord  Teignmouth, 
as  its  first  President.  Heber  became  not  only  an  early  sub- 
scriber, but  the  warmest  advocate  and  defender  of  the  Society 
among  the  Anglican  clergy.  The  earliest  of  his  missionary 
sermons  was  preached  at  Shrewsbury  for  that  Society  from  the 
words  (Rev.  xiv.  6)  /  sa7v  another  angel  fly  in  the  midst  of 
heaven,  having  the  ever/asting  gospel  to  preach  unto  them  that 
dwell  on  the  earth,  and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongue, 
and  people.  To  Heber  more  than  any  man  in  England  was 
due  the  disappearance  of  the  prejudice  of  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  England  against  the  new  and  catholic  institution, 
especially  because  they  supposed  it  to  be  unfavourable  to  the 
religious  establishment  of  the  country.  The  sermon  is  a  fine 
plea  against  "those  unhappy  differences  among  the  people  of 
God  whereby  our  Saviour's  seamless  coat  is  rent,  and  the 
progress  of  His  faith  impeded."  The  peroration  is  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  preacher's  style  in  1813. 

".  .  .  I  might  tell  you  of  the  ignorant  enlightened,  of  the  poor  made 
rich,  of  the  prisoner  by  our  means  released  from  a  worse  captivity; 
I  might  point  out  to  you  that  Germany,  from  whence  our  own 
reformation  was  derived,  now  taught  and  comforted  by  our  filial 
piety  ;  I  might  show  universal  Christendom  rejoicing  in  our  light, 
and  hostile  nations  offering  up  their  prayers  for  England,  the  friend 
of  souls  ;  I  might  boast  of  the  bounds  of  knowledge  extended, 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  107 


and  paint  genius  and  learning  braving  in  our  cause  the  toils  of 
barbarous  dialects  and  the  terrours  of  pestilential  climates.  Your 
attention  might,  lastly,  be  directed  to  those  mighty  fields  whose 
har\cst  has  not  yet  sounded  under  the  Christian  reaping  hook,  to 
benighted  Africa  waiting  for  our  illumination,  and  to  those  vast 
regions  of  Indian  ignorance  which  Providence  has  planted  under 
our  country's  care.  But  I  need  not  urge  you  farther  ;  these  things 
have  not  been  done  in  a  corner  ;  our  sound  has  gone  forth  into 
all  lands,  and  our  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  as  you 
wish  these  blessings  to  continue,  and  these  hopes  to  be  realised, 
the  world  itself,  for  whose  spiritual  instruction  I  plead,  in  God's 
name  demands  your  assistance.  I  entreat  you  then,  my  brethren, 
as  you  would  not  be  found  wanting  in  the  work  of  Christ,  to  join 
our  holy  fellowship  ;  as  you  would  escape  the  curse  pronounced 
against  those  who  come  not  forth  to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  I  conjure 
you  that  you  stand  not  idle  in  this  His  victory  !  But  remember, 
above  all  things,  if  you  desire  these  labours  to  be  available  to  your 
own  salvation,  as  well  as  to  the  salvation  of  other  men,  if  you 
hope  to  partake  in  those  spiritual  blessings  which  your  bounty 
may  distribute,  remember  that  we  vainly  make  others  wise  while 
our  own  hearts  are  blinded  and  ignorant ;  that  it  is  not  enough  to 
give  the  Bible  to  the  poor  unless  we  also  study  it  ourselves,  and 
unless  our  daily  prayers  and  daily  actions  cherish  and  display  that 
faith  and  hope  of  which  this  blessed  Volume  is  the  treasury  ! " 

Heber  was  a  member  of  the  venerable  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge,  for  which  he  preached  twice  at  a 
later  period,  but  in  181 9  he  again  came  to  the  rescue  of  the 
Bible  Society,  as  including  all  Christians,  against  a  correspond- 
ent of  the  Christian  Reinonbrancer,  who  considered  that  old 
Church  of  England  institution  to  be  quite  sufficient  to  supply 
the  world  with  the  printed  Word  of  God. 

Heber's  desire  for  unity  and  charity  within  the  Church  of 
England  itself,  that  the  missionary  calling  of  Christendom 
might  be  more  zealously  carried  out,  was  not  less  than  his 
effort  to  combine  all  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists  in  Bible 
distribution.  So  early  as  the  year  18 18  he  anticipated,  and 
on  much  more  practical  lines,  the  recent  movement  of  the 
Archbishops  and  Bishops  to  substitute  the  Church  as  such 
for  two  competing  Societies  within  the  Church,  which  has 
found  a  tentative  organisation  in  the  Boards  of  Missions,  and 
a  hesitating  voice  in  "The  Missionary  Conference  of  the 


[o8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Anglican  Communion  "  held  in  1894.  We  find  him  writing  to 
John  Thornton  thus  : — 

"  HoDNET  Rectory,  Wi  September  1818. 
".  .  .  We  left  Chester  five  weeks  since,  heartily  tired  with  our 
sojourn  there,  though,  I  hope,  with  feelings  of  sincere  thankfulness 
for  the  blessing  which  we  had  received.  I  believe  I  wrote  you 
word  that  our  little  Barbara  was,  in  the  first  instance,  a  very 
healthy  child  ;  during  the  hot  weather,  howe\  er,  of  the  latter  end 
of  July  she  had  so  violent  an  illness  as  to  leave,  for  some  days, 
hardly  the  most  remote  hope  of  her  life.  Thank  God  1  she  wrestled 
through  it  surprisingly,  but  it  left  her  a  skeleton  ;  since  that  time 
her  progress  has  been  very  rapid,  and  as  favourable  as  we  could 
hope  or  desire,  and  she  is  really  now  such  a  baby  as  parents  exult 
to  show. 

".  .  .  Has  your  attention  ever  been  recalled  to  the  subject  which 
we  discussed  when  we  last  met  ? — a  union  between  the  two  Church 
Missionary  Societies.  ...  I  have  never  lived  very  much  with  men 
of  my  own  profession,  but  I  have  seen  more  of  them  during  my 
stay  in  Chester  than  has  usually  happened  to  me,  and  I  found 
reason  to  believe  that  many  clergymen  would  give  their  zealous 
assistance  to  a  united  body,  who  now  hang  back  for  fear  of  com- 
mitting themselves,  etc.,  etc.  But  one  of  my  strongest  reasons 
for  desiring  such  a  union  is,  that  it  would  prevent  that  hateful 
spirit  of  party  (which  at  present  unhappily  divides,  and  will,  I 
fear,  continue  to  divide  the  Church)  from  operating,  as  it  now 
does,  to  the  prejudice  of  that  common  object  which  both  sides 
profess  to  have  in  view — the  conversion  of  the  heathen." 

By  this  time  the  Bishops  had  begun  to  see  their  way  to  join 
the  Church  Missionary  Society,  as  Heber  had  done  long  before, 
so  that  he  formally  raised  the  question  by  thus  addressing 
one  of  them  : — • 

"  HoDNET  Rectory,  izth  Oclobey  1818. 
"  My  Lord — May  I  hope  your  Lordship  will  pardon  the  liberty 
thus  taken  by  a  stranger,  who  would  not  have  ventured  to  trespass 
on  your  valuable  time  if  it  were  not  on  a  subject  which  he  con- 
ceives important  to  the  peace  of  the  Church  and  the  propagation 
of  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen. 

"  Of  the  two  societies  established  for  that  purpose  in  our  Church, 
I  have  been  induced  to  join  that  which  is  peculiarly  sanctioned  by 
your  Lordship's  name,  as,  apparently,  most  active,  and  as  employ- 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  109 


ing  with  more  wisdom  than  the  elder  corporation  those  powerful 
means  of  obtaining  popular  support  which  ignorance  only  can 
depreciate  or  condemn.  It  is  but  justice  to  say  that  I  have  seen 
nothing  which  leads  me  to  repent  of  this  choice.  But  why,  tny 
Lord  (may  I  be  permitted  to  ask)  should  there  be  two  societies  for 
the  same  precise  object  ?  Would  it  not  be  possible  and  advantage- 
ous to  unite  them  both  into  one  great  body,  under  the  same  rules 
and  the  same  administration,  which  might  embrace  all  the  different 
departments  in  which  zeal  for  the  missionary  cause  may  be 
advantageous  ?  In  other  words,  since  the  charter  of  the  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  forbids  their  joining 
us,  why  might  not  we,  as  a  body,  make  an  offer  to  transfer  our 
subscriptions,  our  funds,  and  our  missionary  establishments  to 
them,  on  such  conditions  as  might  secure  our  missions  from 
neglect,  and  our  money  from  misapplication,  supposing  such 
neglect  or  misapplication  to  be  likely  or  possible  ?  The  advantages 
of  such  a  union  would,  I  humbly  conceive,  be  great.  It  might  go 
very  far  towards  healing  the  breach  which  unhappily  exists  in  our 
establishment.  It  would  be  the  most  efficacious  answer  which 
could  be  given  to  those  imputations  of  a  party  and  sectarian  spirit 
which,  either  from  prejudice  or  misinformation,  have  been  brought 
against  the  Church  Missionary  Society  ;  and  I  apprehend  that  the 
efforts  of  Churchmen  in  one  accordant  society  would  be  more 
efficacious  in  the  good  cause  than,  under  present  circumstances, 
they  are  likely  to  be." 

At  a  time  when  the  Gospel  Propagation  Society  has  published 
its  history  since  1701,'  and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  is 
about  to  prepare  for  its  first  centennial  commemoration,  Heber's 
scheme  of  union  has  at  least  a  historical  interest  : — 

"  It  is  respectfully  suggested  to  the  members  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  that  it  is  e.\pedient  that  the  said  society  should 
make  the  offer  of  uniting  themselves  with  the  Incorporated  Society 
for  Propagating  Christianity  in  Foreign  Parts,  on  the  following 
conditions  : 

"  1st.  That  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  do  admit 
as  members  all  those  who  are  now  members  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  either  on  the  presumption  of  their  being 
churchmen,  which  the  fact  of  their  belonging  to  such  a  society 
warrants,  or,  if  a  further  guarantee  be  thought  necessary  in  the 


'  Digest  of  the  Records,  1701-1892  (London  1893). 


I  lO 


BISHOP  HERER 


case  of  the  lay-members,  on  the  recommendation  of  some  of  the 
clerical  members  of  the  said  Society  for  Church  Missions. 

"  2ndly.  That,  in  consideration  of  the  increase  of  numbers,  one 
joint  treasurer  and  three  additional  secretaries  be  appointed  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel ;  and  that  the  same 
gentlemen  who  now  hold  those  offices  in  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  be  requested  to  accept  of  the  treasurership  and  two  of  the 
said  secretaryships. 

"  3rdly.  That  District  Societies,  either  county,  diocesan,  or  archi- 
diaconal,  be  instituted,  with  powers  to  recommend  new  members, 
to  raise  and  receive  subscriptions,  appoint  clergj-men  to  preach 
for  the  society,  etc.,  on  the  plan  now  adopted  by  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 

"  4thly.  That  all  the  missionaries,  schoolmasters,  etc.,  now 
employed  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society  shall  be  immediately 
taken  into  the  employ  of  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel, 
and  not  dismissed  unless  in  case  of  bad  behaviour,  but  treated  in 
all  respects  in  the  same  manner  with  those  which  the  last-named 
society  at  present  supports. 

"  Sthly.  That,  these  conditions  being  agreed  to,  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  will  transfer  to  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  their  subscriptions,  their  stock,  the  services  of  their 
missionaries,  their  experience  and  local  knowledge,  and  zealously 
co-operate  with  them  in  the  support  of  their  society,  and  the 
orthodox  and  orderly  furtherance  of  their  benevolent  and  Christian 
views." 

Eighty  years  ago  there  was  more  prospect  of  this  scheme  being 
carried  out  than  at  present,  although  the  catholic  spirit  of  Heber 
now  prevails  more  than  at  that  time.  The  two  regiments  do 
more  execution  on  the  field  than  if  they  w-ere  linked  as  one 
battalion  in  a  Church  so  comprehensive  as  that  of  England. 
The  zeal  of  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  who  would  fain 
organise  the  Church's  missions  on  theoretically^  right  lines,  is  at 

'  The  present  Rector  of  Malpas,  the  Rev.  the  Hon.  W.  Trevor  Kenyon, 
thus  expressed  the  high  Anglican  view  in  the  Church  Congress,  Rhyl,  1891  : 
"  In  the  face  of  the  great  organisation  which  is  centralised  in  an  Italian  city, 
and  sends  forth  from  it  its  pronunciaments  by  one  authority  and  under  one 
discipline,  we,  on  the  other  hand,  who  represent  the  one  great  Anglican 
Communion,  which  is  more  and  more  throughout  the  world  spreading,  and 
learning  to  realise  its  great  position,  getting  to  know  itself  as  the  fairest 
representation  on  earth  of  the  old,  the  ancient  faith  —  we,  I  say,  should 
endeavour  to  have  such  Federation  in  matters  ecclesiastical  as  is  hoped  for  by 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  iii 


least  some  atonement  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  for 
the  indifference  of  their  predecessors,  at  its  beginning,  to  the 
very  object  for  which  the  Church  exists.  Heber's  love  for  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  is  seen  in  the  sermon  on  the  con- 
version of  the  heathen  which  he  preached  for  it  at  Whittington,i 
Salop,  in  1820,  from  the  text,  "Thy  kingdom  come."  Thus, 
simply  and  powerfully,  did  the  preacher  at  that  early  time 
rouse  the  villagers : — 

".  .  .  When  we  consider  how  distant  are  those  lands  which  yet 
remain  to  be  brought  from  the  wildness  of  pagan  errour  to  the 
pale  of  the  Christian  ;  how  vast  is  that  multitude  which,  even  while 
nominally  within  that  pale,  is  still  in  the  shadow  of  death,  and  in 
need  of  being  enlightened  and  evangelised  ;  when  we  consider 
how  narrow,  in  comparison  with  the  numbers  which  seek  admission, 
are  the  buildings  appropriated  to  our  labours,  and  how  seldom  it  is 
in  the  course  of  the  year  that,  amid  the  cares  and  concerns  of  the 
world,  those  labours  can  procure  an  audience,  we  are  compelled, 
by  every  motive  of  duty  to  ourselves,  as  well  as  of  charity  to  our 
brethren,  to  charge  those  who  have  already  attained  to  that  good 
light  to  give  diligence  lest  others  be  deprived  of  the  means  of 
access  to  it,  and  to  invite  them,  by  a  wise  and  bountiful  exertion 
of  the  talents  allotted  them,  to  help  us  in  bringing  home  to  the 
tents  of  the  Indian  and  the  cottages  of  the  poor  that  knowledge 
of  Christ  which  is  the  great  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  and 
to  hold  up,  like  Aaron  and  Hur,  the  overwearied  hands  of  Moses, 
lest  through  their  neglect  the  people  of  the  Lord  be  discomfited 
before  their  spiritual  enemies. 

"  This  is  the  task  to  which  we  call  you,  this  the  task  in 
which  we  pray  you  to  be  fellow-labourers  with  ourselves — a  task 
no  less  plainly  enjoined  in  Scripture  than  it  is  obviously  deducible 
from  the  dictates  of  our  strongest  natural  wants  and  our  most 
amiable  natural  feelings.  If  we  are  forbidden  to  see  our  neighbour 
suffer  hunger,  disease,  or  nakedness  without,  to  the  best  of  our 
power,  endeavouring  to  relieve  his  sufferings  ;  if  it  be  a  crime  to 
suffer  our  enemy's  beast  of  burthen  to  fall  beneath  its  load  without 
rendering  it  our  assistance,  of  what  punishment  must  he  be 


many  politicians  in  matters  political,  and  so  let  the  Anglican  Communion 
show  what  she  can  do,  united,  and  will  do,  God  helping  her,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  Catholic  missionary  spirit — 

"  '  Quod  semper,  quod  ab  omnibus,  quod  ubique.'  " 
'  Long  the  parochial  cure  of  Bishop  How  of  Wakefield. 


112 


BISHOP  HEBER 


worthy  who  looks  on  with  dry  eyes  and  without  an  effort  to  abate 
the  evil  on  millions  stretched  out  in  deadly  darkness  of  idolatry 
and  superstition  ;  on  millions  more  surrounded  with  light,  yet,  by 
some  strange  fatality,  continuing  to  work  the  works  of  darkness  ; 
on  millions  as  yet  incapable  of  good  or  evil,  whose  happiness  or 
misery,  both  in  this  world  and  the  world  to  come,  must  depend 
on  the  sort  of  education  which  is  given  them  ? 

".  .  .  Suppose  that  these  things,  which  we  have  known  from 
our  childhood,  and  have,  therefore,  ceased  to  regard  as  they  ought  to 
be  regarded,  were  at  this  time  first  made  known  to  us  ;  suppose  we 
were  now  first  told  that  there  is  a  good,  and  just,  and  holy,  and 
merciful  God  over  all,  to  whom  all  His  works  are  known,  who 
requires  from  us  no  bloody  sacrifice,  no  shocking,  or  difficult,  or 
costly  service,  but  whose  eyes  and  ears  are  ever  open  to  the 
prayer  of  the  humble  and  the  penitent  !  Suppose  we  now  first 
heard  that  the  sins  by  which  we  are  each  of  us  conscious  that  we 
have  offended  God  are  pardoned,  on  our  true  repentance,  through 
the  mediation  and  sufferings  of  God's  beloved  Son,  who  so  loved 
the  inhabitants  of  the  world  that  He  came  down  from  Heaven 
to  take  on  Himself  their  punishment !  Suppose  we  had  now  first 
opened  to  us  the  prospect  of  another  and  a  better  world  in  which 
we  may  hope,  together  with  those  dear  and  virtuous  friends  of 
whom  death  has  robbed  us,  to  dwell  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
the  objects  of  His  mercy  and  His  favour  !  Suppose  that  when  our 
prospect  of  this  reward  grew  dim,  and  our  heart  fainted  through 
a  sense  of  our  inherent  weakness  and  unworthiness,  we  were  now 
first  lifted  up  to  hope  and  diligence  in  well-doing  by  the  promise 
of  a  pure  and  mighty  Comforter  to  enlighten  us  when  we  were 
dark,  to  support  us  when  we  were  feeble,  to  raise  us  when  we  fell, 
and  finally  to  beat  down  under  our  feet  our  fiercest  and  mightiest 
enemy !  Suppose,  I  say,  these  things  were  told  you  this  day  for 
the  first  time,  and  ask  your  own  hearts  whether  the  natural 
sympathies  of  humanity  would  not  produce  an  earnest  desire  that 
the  same  glorious  truths  might  be  made  known  to  others  besides 
yourselves,  and  that  all  your  neighbours,  yea,  that  all  mankind 
should,  like  you,  be  enabled  to  behold  this  great  salvation  ? 

"  My  brethren,  there  are  many  millions  of  men  in  the  world, 
hundreds  of  millions,  to  whom  these  blessed  truths  are  yet  unknown. 
Millions  who  have  lost  the  knowledge  of  the  one  true  God  amid 
a  multitude  of  false  or  evil  deities,  who  bow  down  to  stocks  and 
stones,  who  propitiate  their  senseless  idols  with  cruel  and  bloody 
sacrifices,  who  lose  sight  of  their  dying  friends  with  no  expecta- 
tion of  again  beholding  them,  and  who  go  dowTi  to  the  grave 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  113 


themselves  in  doubt  and  trembling  ignorance,  without  light,  without 
hope,  without  knowledge  of  a  Saviour  ! 

"  Is  it  your  pleasure,  is  it  your  desire,  that  these  your  fellow- 
creatures  should  be  brought  from  darkness  into  light,  that  they 
should  share  with  you  your  helps,  your  hopes,  your  knowledge, 
your  salvation  ?  Can  you  pray  with  sincerity  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  may  come  to  them  as  it  has  come  to  you,  and  will  you,  thus 
desiring  and  thus  praying,  refuse  to  furnish,  according  to  your 
ability,  the  means  of  bringing  it  to  them  ?  You  cannot,  you  will 
not,  you  dare  not  ! 

'•.  .  .  If  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians  everywhere  to  co-operate 
in  the  furtherance  of  these  glorious  prospects,  so  there  is  no  nation 
in  the  world  on  whom  so  strong  an  obligation  of  this  kind  is  laid 
as  on  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain.  Our  colonies,  our  commerce, 
our  conquests,  our  discoveries,  the  empire  which  the  Almighty 
has  subjected  to  our  sword,  the  purity  of  our  national  creed,  the 
apostolic  dignity  of  our  national  establishments,  what  are  all  these 
but  so  many  calls  to  labour  in  the  improvement  of  the  heritage 
which  we  have  received,  so  many  talents  entrusted  to  our  charge, 
of  which  a  strict  account  must  be  one  day  rendered  ?  Shall  we 
overlook  our  heavy  debt  of  blood  and  tears  to  injured  Africa  ? 
Shall  we  forget  those  innumerable  isles  of  the  southern  ocean  first 
visited  by  our  sails,  but  which  so  long  derived  from  us  nothing 
but  fresh  wants,  fresh  diseases,  fresh  wickedness  ?  Shall  we  for- 
get the  spiritual  destitution  of  those  sixty  millions  of  our  fellow- 
men,  yea,  our  fellow-subjects,  who  in  India  still  bow  the  head  to 
vanities,  and  torment  themselves,  and  burn  their  mothers,  and 
butcher  their  infants  at  the  shrine  of  a  mad  and  devilish  super- 
stition ?  Shall  we  forget,  while  every  sea  is  traversed  by  our 
keels,  and  every  wind  brings  home  wealth  into  our  harbours,  that 
we  have  a  treasure  at  home  of  which  those  from  whom  we  draw 
our  wealth  are  in  the  utmost  need — a  treasure,  if  used  aright, 
more  precious  than  rubies,  but  which,  if  wilfully  and  wantonly  hid, 
must,  like  the  Spartan  fox,  destroy  and  devour  its  possessor  ? 
Oh,  when  you  are  about  to  lie  down  this  night,  and  begin,  in  the 
words  which  the  Lord  has  taught  you,  to  commend  your  bodies 
and  souls  to  His  protection,  will  you  not  blush,  will  you  not 
tremble  to  think,  while  you  say  to  God  '  Thy  kingdom  come  ! ' 
that  you  have  this  day  refused  your  contributions  towards  the 
extension  of  that  kingdom  ?  I  know  you  will  not  refuse  them  ! 
Or,  is  it  still  necessary  to  recommend  to  your  support  that  peculiar 
instrument  of  doing  good  in  whose  behalf  I  now  stand  before  you, 
and  to  vindicate  the  Church  Missionary  Society  from  the  suspicion 
I 


114 


BISHOP  HEBER 


of  party  and  sectarian  motives  ?  This,  also,  I  will  attempt,  though 
in  the  great  cause  of  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  it  is  wearisome 
to  descend  to  disputes  as  to  the  fittest  channel  of  a  benevolence 
which  can  hardly  be  directed  into  a  wrong  one. 

".  .  .  Did,  in  our  own  Church,  and  in  the  days  of  our  imme- 
diate fathers,  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts  presume  to  tell  her  younger  sister  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge  that  in  sending  missionaries  to  India  she  was  thrusting 
an  intrusive  sickle  into  the  harvest  of  another  ?  There  are  ver>' 
many  motives  besides  a  sectarian  spirit  which  may  lead  men  to 
institute  and  encourage  new  institutions  rather  than  to  throw  the 
whole  weight  of  their  bounty  into  the  old.  While  some  prefer  the 
wary  caution  of  a  self-elected  corporation,  others  may,  with  at 
least  a  show  of  reason,  and  certainly  without  just  offence  to  any, 
conceive  that  more  good  is  likely  to  be  produced  by  the  popular 
and  expansive  force  of  a  society  where  every  member  has  a  voice 
in  the  application  of  his  contributions.  With  many,  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  directors  of  one  association  will  induce  them  to 
prefer  it  to  another  equally  respectable,  and  there  are  many  who, 
from  experience  of  the  superior  activity  possessed  by  most  recent 
institutions,  will  expect  greater  and  more  beneficial  exertions  from 
a  new  society  for  no  other  reason  than  because  it  is  new.  But 
while  there  is  room  and  employment  for  all,  while  there  is  a  unity 
of  faith,  a  unity  of  object,  a  unity  of  symbols  and  sacraments,  a 
unity  of  religious  and  canonical  obedience,  and,  above  all,  a  unity 
of  Christian  charity,  such  institutions  may  all  wish  each  other 
good  luck  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  with  no  other  rivalry  than  that 
of  which  shall  best  serve  their  common  Master." 

In  his  Bampton  lecture  on  The  Personality  and  Office  of  the 
Christian  Comforter  the  position  of  the  heathen  is  discussed 
at  some  length  in  relation  to  the  Lord's  promise  of  the  Para- 
clete.^ Most  powerful  of  all  the  influences  which  led  Heber 
on  to  live  and  die  for  the  people  of  India  was  the  career  of 
Henry  Martyn,  whose  first  convert  he  was  to  ordain  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Calcutta.^  Mrs.  Heber  wrote  thus  when  referring 
to  the  year  1822  : — 

"  For  many  years  Mr.  Reginald  Heber  had  watched  with  in- 
terest the  progress  made  by  Christianity  wherever  English  in- 


Read  in  the  year  1815.  Second  edition,  1818,  chap.  vi. 
^  Henry  Martyn,  Saint  and  Scholar  [iZgz),  p.  288. 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  115 


fluence  extended,  and  he  assisted,  by  every  means  within  his 
power,  the  exertions  of  the  various  rehgious  societies  to  which  he 
belonged  ;  but  more  especially  to  India  had  his  thoughts  and 
views  been  anxiously  directed.  With  Martyn  he  had,  in  idea, 
traversed  its  sultry  regions,  had  shared  in  his  privations,  had 
sympathised  in  his  sufferings,  and  had  exulted  in  the  prospects  of 
success  occasionally  opened  to  him.  Many  of  Martyn's  sufferings 
and  privations  he  saw  were  caused  by  a  peculiar  temperament, 
and  by  a  zeal  which,  disregarding  all  personal  danger  and  sacri- 
fice, led  that  devoted  servant  of  God  to  follow,  at  whatever  risk, 
those  objects  which  would  have  been  more  effectually  attained, 
and  at  a  less  costly  sacrifice,  had  they  been  pursued  with  caution 
and  patience.  He  could  separate  the  real  and  unavoidable  diffi- 
culties of  the  task  from  such  as  resulted  from  these  causes,  and 
he  felt  that  they  were  not  insuperable. 

"  Without  ever  looking  to  anything  beyond  the  privilege  of 
assisting  at  a  distance  those  excellent  men  who  were  using  their 
talents  for  the  advancement  of  Christianity,  he  would  frequently 
express  a  wish  that  his  lot  had  been  thrown  among  them  ;  and 
he  would  say  that,  were  he  alone  concerned,  and  were  there  none 
who  depended  on  him,  and  whose  interests  and  feelings  he  was 
bound  to  respect,  he  would  cheerfully  go  forth  to  join  in  that 
glorious  train  of  martyrs,  whose  triumphs  he  has  celebrated  in 
one  of  his  hymns.  He  felt  (and  on  that  Christian  feeling  did  he 
act)  that  any  sacrifice  which  he  could  make  would  be  amply  com- 
pensated by  his  becoming  the  instrument  of  saving  one  soul  from 
destruction.  On_  the  erection  of  the  episcopal  see  in  India,  and 
on  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Middleton  to  its  duties,  his  interest  in 
that  country  increased." 

Not  for  five  months  after  the  death  of  Bishop  Middleton  at 
Calcutta,  in  the  ninth  year  of  his  episcopate  and  fifty-fourth  of 
his  age,  did  the  intelligence  reach  England.  All  who  inter- 
ested themselves  in  the  East  at  once  turned  to  the  Rector  of 
Hodnet  and  preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn  as  best  fitted  to  be  his 
successor.  Heber's  old  college  friend,  the  Right  Honourable 
C.  W.  Williams  Wynn,  was  President  of  the  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  the  Affairs  of  India,  and  with  him  it  rested  to  sub- 
mit names,  as  usual,  to  the  Crown.  Heber's  services  to  the 
Church  of  England  and  to  vital  religion  were  such  that  all 
classes,  ecclesiastical  and  political,  believed  his  appointment 
to  the  bench  of  bishops  to  be  only  a  question  of  time.  Hence 


[6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


the  following  demi-official  correspondence,  most  honourable 
to  both  the  writers  :— 

"East  India  Office,  2nd  December  1822. 
"  My  dear  Reginald — You  will  have  seen  in  the  newspapers 
the  death  of  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  I  cannot  expect,  and 
certainly  do  not  wish,  that,  with  your  fair  prospects  of  eminence 
at  home,  you  should  go  to  the  Ganges  for  a  mitre.  Indeed 
^5000  per  annum  for  fifteen  years,  and  a  retiring  pension  of 
^1500  at  the  end  of  them,  is  not  a  temptation  which  could  com- 
pensate you  for  quitting  the  situation  and  comforts  which  you 
now  enjoy,  if  you  were  certain  of  never  being  promoted.  You 
would,  however,  extremely  oblige  me  by  giving  me,  in  the  strictest 
confidence,  your  opinion  as  to  those  who  have  been,  or  are  likely 
to  be  suggested  for  that  appointment  ;  and  you  would  add  to  the 
obligation  if  you  could  point  out  any  one  who,  to  an  inferior 
degree  of  theological  and  literary  qualification,  adds  the  same 
moderation,  discretion,  and  active  benevolence,  which  would  make 
me  feel  that,  if  you  were  not  destined,  I  trust,  to  be  still  more 
usefully  employed  at  home,  I  should  confer  the  greatest  blessing 
upon  India  in  recommending  you. — Ever  most  faithfully  yours, 
"  C.  W.  Williams  Wynn." 

"  HoDNET  Rectory,  7///  December  1822. 
"  My  dear  Wynn — I  can  hardly  tell  you  how  much  I  feel 
obliged  by  the  kind  manner  in  which  you  speak  of  me,  and  the 
confidence  which  you  have  reposed  in  me.  I  will  endeavour  to 
merit  both  by  the  strictest  secrecy,  and  by  speaking  honestly  and 
closely  to  the  points  in  which  you  wish  for  information.  ...  I 
heartily  wish  I  myself  deserved  even  a  small  part  of  the  kind  ex- 
pressions you  have  used  towards  me.  I  will  confess  that  (after 
reading  missionaiy  reports  and  some  of  Southey's  articles  in  the 
Quarterly)  I  have  sometimes  been  tempted  to  wish  myself  Bishop 
of  Calcutta,  and  to  fancy  that  I  could  be  of  service  there.  Had 
you,  as  was  once  reported,  gone  out  to  the  East,  I  should  have 
liked  it  beyond  most  other  preferment.  As  it  is,  I  am,  probably, 
better  at  home,  so  far  as  my  personal  happiness  is  concerned, 
than  in  a  situation,  however  distinguished  and  however  splendidly 
paid,  which  involves  so  many  sacrifices  of  health,  home,  and 
friendship.  Yet,  in  my  present  feelings,  and  with  \  eiy  imperfect 
information  as  to  some  particulars  which,  for  my  family's  sake,  it 
is  necessary  I  should  know,  will  you  permit  me  to  defer  my 
answer  for  a  few  days,  till  I  have  been  able  to  consult  those  whom 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


117 


I  am  bound  to  consult  on  such  an  occasion — my  wife,  my  brother, 
and  my  mother  ? 

"If,  however,  I  have  misunderstood  you,  or  if  any  fitter  man 
occurs  to  you,  or  any  person  to  whose  claims,  as  a  public  man, 
you  find  it  desirable  to  attend,  let  me  beg  you,  per  amicitiam,  to 
set  me  aside  without  scruple  or  delay,  and  the  more  so  because  I 
do  not  yet  hardly  know  my  own  inclinations,  much  more  those  of 
the  persons  whom  I  must  consult. 

"  There  is  one  case,  indeed,  in  which,  however  anxious  I  or 
they  may  be  for  the  appointment,  I  should  wish  you  to  put  me 
decidedly  out  of  the  cjuestion  ;  I  mean  if  any  eligible  person 
should  be  found  among  the  archdeacons  and  chaplains  already  in 
India.  The  time  may,  perhaps,  be  not  yet  arrived  for  a  division 
of  the  single  unwieldy  diocese  into  three,  which  otherwise  might 
be  done  with  ease,  and  with  no  additional  e.^pense,  by  raising  the 
three  archdeacons  to  the  episcopal  dignity,  and  dividing  the  salary 
of  the  bishop  among  them  in  addition  to  that  which  they  already 
receive.  If  it  were,  such  an  arrangement  might,  I  conceive,  add 
greatly  to  the  improvement  and  extension  of  Christian  India  ; 
while,  if  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  were  made  primate,  a  unity  of 
system  and  a  power  of  appeal  might  be  preserved  as  well  as  at 
present.  But,  at  all  events,  it  must  be  a  great  advantage  to  a 
bishop  to  have  been  already  for  some  time  conversant  with  the 
wants,  the  habits,  and  the  persons  of  his  flock,  his  clergy  and  his 
heathen  neighbours  ;  and  the  advancement  of  a  deserving  man 
among  their  own  number  might  be  a  very  beneficial  stimulus  to 
the  activity  and  circumspection  of  the  inferior  clergy.  Of  the 
present  archdeacons,  however,  I  know  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing. 

"  I  fear  I  shall  have  tired  you  with  my  long  letter  ;  it  is  you 
yourself,  however,  who  have  encouraged  me  ;  and  I  hope,  nay  I 
am  convinced,  that  you  will  not  misunderstand  the  feelings  with 
which  I  have  written  it  ;  but  that  you  will  believe  me,  whatever 
may  be  the  upshot  of  the  business  so  far  as  it  regards  myself, 
dear  Charles,  ever  your  obliged  and  faithful  friend, 

"  Reginald  Heber." 

Heber  thus  consulted  his  wife,  then  with  their  child  at 
Bodryddan,  at  her  father's  ; — 

"  IIODNET  Rectory,  T/h  December  1822. 
"  My  dearest  Love — I  found,  on  my  return  home  yesterday, 
the  enclosed  letter  from  C.  W.  Wynn  ;  his  friendship  and  good 
opinion  are  very  gratifying,  and  I  will  confess  I  have  been  a  good 


ii8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


deal  inclined  to  express,  what  he  does  not  seem  to  anticipate,  my 
own  readiness  to  go  to  India. 

"You  may  recollect  that  we  have  occasionally  talked  the  thing 
over,  though  never  dreaming  that  we  should  ever  have  the  option. 
I  do  not  think  we  should  either  of  us  dislike  a  residence  of  some 
years  (though  fifteen  is  a  long  time)  in  a  new  and  interesting 
country.  The  present  appointment  is  considerable,  and  even  the 
retiring  pension  more  than  we  are  ever  again  likely  to  receive 
from  Hodnet ;  and  whatever  hopes  of  advancement  at  home  my 
friends  may  hold  out,  we  must  not  forget  that  their  tenure  of 
power  is  very  uncertain,  and  that  they  have  many  claims  which 
they  may  be  compelled  to  gratify  before  mine.  On  the  other 
hand,  even  ^5000  a  year,  when  we  reckon  the  expenses  of  a 
voyage  to  India  and  a  residence  there,  the  probable  curtailment 
of  life,  and  the  vastly  increased  rate  of  life  insurance,  will  make 
me  a  very  little  richer  man,  and  probably  not  so  happy  a  one  as 
I  may  be  with  even  my  present  diminished  income.  I  know  not 
how  India  will  agree  with  your  health  or  that  of  our  little  darling, 
or  what  disadvantage  it  might  offer  to  her  education  and  prospects. 
Nor  could  we  either  of  us,  though  most  happy  in  each  other,  take 
leave,  without  a  very  bitter  pang,  of  so  many  excellent  friends, 
some  whom  we  could  not  reasonably  hope  to  meet  again  on 
earth.  .  .  . 

"  These  feelings  would  have  at  once  decided  me  to  be  of  the 
same  opinion  which  C.  W.  Wynn  expresses,  were  I  quite  sure 
whether  I  should  not  do  God  more  acceptable  ser\'ice  by  going 
than  by  staying  here.  In  the  acceptance  of  this  bishopric  I 
should  be,  at  least,  sure  that  I  was  not  actuated  by  secular  or  un- 
worthy views.  I  verily  believe  and  hope  that  I  should  be  of  con- 
siderable use  there  by  moderating  between  the  two  missionary' 
societies,  and  directing  their  efforts  in  accordant  and  useful 
channels  ;  and  by  a  removal  into  an  entirely  new  sphere  of  action, 
we  should  both  have  the  advantage  of,  in  some  measure,  begin- 
ning life  anew,  unfettered  by  previous  habits  and  intimacies,  and 
only  studious  how  we  might  best  live  to  God  and  to  the  good  of 
His  creatures. 

"  Yet  here,  again,  I  cannot  be  sure  that  I  am  not  drawing  a 
picture  to  myself  which  I  should  find  utterly  imaginary.  If  I  am 
idle  and  fond  of  society  in  England,  I  shall  be  still  more  disposed 
to  both  in  a  relaxing  climate  and  in  the  bustle  of  a  government 
town.  I  cannot,  without  ridiculous  vanity,  say  that  my  services 
are  necessary  to  the  Indian  Church,  or  that  plenty  of  persons  may 
not  be  found  as  fit,  or  fitter,  to  undertake  the  duty.    It  is  not  an 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  119 


unpopular  or  an  unprofitable  post  ;  many  are  anxious  to  obtain  it. 
Perhaps  if  I  went  there,  I  should  keep  out  some  man  whose 
knowledge  of  Eastern  languages  and  customs  makes  him  far  better 
adapted  for  it  ;  and  perhaps,  even  if  I  remain  as  I  am,  and  where 
I  hope  I  am  really  useful,  I  am  labouring  in  my  vocation  more 
steadily  than  in  searching  out  new  spheres  of  duty.  .  .  ." 

The  doctor  warned  Heber  that,  if  he  went  to  India,  he 
must  face  the  pain  of  separation  from  his  daughter  Emily, 
either  at  once  or  in  a  few  years.  His  brother  Richard  personally 
consulted  the  President,  who  pressed  Heber  not  to  hesitate  to 
accept  an  office  in  which  his  virtues  and  talents  would  be 
more  beneficial  to  his  fellow-creatures  than  in  any  other.  His 
wife's  friends  gave  their  verdict  against  India.  Most  pathetic 
of  all  was  his  mother's  appeal  at  a  time  when,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, not  one  Englishman  had  gone  forth  from  the 
Church  of  England  as  a  missionary  to  India,  and  Middleton's 
death  following  Martyn's  had  given  an  exaggerated  impression 
as  to  the  climate.  Reginald  Heber  went  to  Moreton,  where 
his  mother  dwelt,  with  this  result :  "  She  said  she  would  bear 
anything  sooner  than  that  I  should  not  do  what  I  thought 
right ;  but  as  she  spoke,  she  burst  into  a  bitter  flood  of  tears, 
and  said,  '  I  am  seventy-one ;  I  never  can  expect  to  see  you 
again.' " 

That  was  a  troubled  Christmas-tide  at  Bodryddan.  The 
medical  opinion  as  to  the  child  and  separation  decided  the 
family  council  there,  and  after  a  month's  consideration,  Heber 
wrote  declining  the  offered  appointment. 

Had  he  known  Daniel  Corrie,  as  he  afterwards  did,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  urged  his  own  wise  and 
unselfish  advice  as  to  the  consecration  of  one  of  the  three 
archdeacons  or  chaplains  in  India.  Mr.  Loring,  the  Arch- 
deacon of  Calcutta,  died  two  months  after  Bishop  Middleton, 
and  Corrie — Henry  Martyn's  friend — was  senior  chaplain. 
But  at  least  a  year  would  have  been  lost,  in  that  case,  in 
bringing  Corrie  home  for  consecration,  and  the  time  was  not 
far  off  when  that  good  man  and  missionary  chaplain  was  to 
become  the  first  Bishop  of  Madras.  A  fortnight  more  passed, 
a  suitable  name  for  the  bishopric  had  not  been  found,  a 
Bengal  medical  expert  gave  a  more  favourable  opinion  than 
the  English  physician  as  to  risk  to  the  child,  and  Heber  wrote 


I20 


BISHOP  HERER 


to  Wynn  :  "  The  sacrifice  which  I  would  not  make  for  the  sake 
of  wealth  and  dignity,  both  my  wife  and  myself  will  cheerfully 
make  in  order  to  prevent  any  serious  inconvenience  to  a  cause 
of  so  much  importance." 
To  this  Wynn  replied  : — 

"East  India  House,  \%lh  January  1823. 
"  The  King  has  returned  his  entire  approbation  of  your  appoint- 
ment to  Calcutta,  and  if  I  could  only  divide  you  so  as  to  leave 
one  in  England  and  send  the  other  to  India,  it  would  also  have 
mine  ;  but  the  die  is  now  cast,  and  we  must  not  look  at  any  side 
but  that  which  stands  uppermost." 

There  were  two  friends  to  whom  Reginald  Heber  turned 
at  this  time  to  pour  out  his  inner  soul  in  frankest  affection — 
John  Thornton  and  Charlotte  Dod.  To  Thornton  he  wrote 
from  Bodryddan : — 

"  I  often,  however,  feel  my  heart  sick  when  I  recollect  the 
sacrifices  which  I  must  make  of  friends,  such  as  few,  very  few, 
have  been  blessed  with.  Yet  it  is  a  comfort  to  me  to  think  that 
most  of  them  are  younger  than  myself,  and  that  if  I  live  through 
my  fifteen  years'  service,  and  should  then  think  myself  justified  in 
returning,  we  may  hope  to  spend  the  evening  of  our  lives  together. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  I  am  persuaded  that  prayer  can  traverse 
land  and  sea,  and  not  only  keep  affection  alive  between  absent 
friends,  but  send  blessings  from  one  to  the  other.  Pray  for  me, 
my  dear  Thornton,  that  my  life  and  doctrine  may  be  such  as  they 
ought  to  be  ;  that  I  may  be  content  in  my  station,  active  in  my 
duty,  and  firm  in  my  faith,  and  that,  when  I  have  preached  to 
others,  I  may  not  be  myself  a  castaway. 

"  I  wish  my  prayers  were  of  greater  efficacy,  but,  such  as  they 
are,  your  name  is  never  omitted  in  them  !  God  bless  you,  your 
Elisa  and  your  children  !  Emily  sends  her  best  regards.  Her 
conduct  has,  throughout  this  affair,  been  everything  which  I  could 
wish." 

Heber's  relation  to  Miss  Dod  had  not  long  before  this 
been  described  by  himself  as  "a  friendship  and  correspond- 
ence sanctioned  like  ours  by  the  wife  of  one  party  and  the 
parents  of  the  other." 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  121 


"  Shrewsbury,  29//;  December  1822. 

"  Dearest  Charlotte — Your  kind  letter  has  this  moment 
reached  me.  Every  mark  of  your  regard  and  sympathy  is  most 
dehghtful  to  me,  and  it,  in  this  instance,  gives  me  the  more  un- 
mixed pleasure,  because  it  is  not  alloyed  with  so  heavy  a  loss  as 
you  naturally  apprehended  for  me.  I  thank  God  my  dear  mother 
enjoys  this  winter  even  more  than  her  usual  health.  The  lady 
whose  death  you  saw  in  the  newspaper  was  a  resident  in  York- 
shire, the  widow  of  a  Reginald  Heber  who  was  my  father's  first 
cousin,  and  who  held  for  many  years  the  living  which  Charles 
Cholmondeley  holds  now.  I  almost  wonder  you  have  never 
heard  any  of  us  name  them,  though,  to  be  sure,  he  has  been  long 
dead,  and  she  has  been  for  the  last  ten  years  unable  to  leave  her 
room.  Under  such  circumstances  her  death  had  been  long  looked 
for  as  a  release  rather  than  an  affliction,  and  the  more  so,  as  her 
memory  had  quite  failed  her,  and  (though  she  always  recognised 
my  brother)  when  Mary  and  her  husband  went  to  see  her  last 
spring,  she  could  not  be  made  to  understand  who  they  were.  I 
have  myself  not  seen  her  since  my  marriage.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, though  so  near  a  connection,  and  a  very  good  and 
sensible  woman  while  her  faculties  remained,  you  may  guess  that 
her  death  has  done  little  else  than  excite  my  gratitude  for  the 
preservation  of  another  Mary  Heber,  who,  at  nearly  the  same  age, 
retains  unimpaired  all  her  faculties,  and  I  trust  may  long  do  so  to 
the  comfort  of  her  children. 

"  I  did  not  forget  my  dear  Charlotte  yesterday,  and  with  my 
whole  heart  I  prayed  to  God  to  bless  her  and  prosper  her  here 
and  everlastingly.  1  have  not  yet  been  able  to  write  any  lines  to 
please  myself.  My  mind  has,  indeed,  within  these  few  days  been 
greatly  agitated  by  a  business  of  much  importance  to  me  and 
mine,  which  I  am  not  yet  at  liberty  to  name  to  any  one,  though  I 
was  never  in  more  want  of  friendly  counsel.  I  have  much  wished 
to  see  you,  and  to  hear  your  opinion,  but  I  was  forced  to  decide 
for  myself  When  we  meet,  or  perhaps  before,  I  may  tell  you  all. 
In  the  meantime  I  have  been  much  comforted  by  believing  that  I 
had  your  pure  and  affectionate  prayers.  I  will,  however,  send 
the  scrap  I  have  written,  but  would  wish  you  not  to  insert  it  in 
your  book  till  it  has  been  corrected. —  Adieu,  dear  friend, 

"R.  H." 

"  From  Oreton  cave,  where  hollies  red 
Gleam  through  the  ivy  overhead  ; 


122 


BISHOP  HEBER 


From  Oreton  cave,  once  happy  place, 
The  harbour  of  our  swarthy  race, 
Where  embers  gleamed  and  kettles  hissed, 
And  fowls  were  found  that  farmers  missed. 
While  the  cross  housewife  cursed  the  fox 
For  geese  eloped  and  kidnapped  cocks. 
From  Oreton  cave,  where,  all  alone, 
She  lingers  yet  beneath  the  stone, 
The  last  survivor  of  her  friends, 
Her  annual  spell  the  gipsy  sends. 
She  bids  thee  think  how  once  she  scanned 
With  piercing  eye  thine  infant  hand  ; 
How  traced  the  signs  amid  thy  veins 
Of  beauty  bright  and  sighing  swains. 
Of  future  colonels  captive  made 
At  ball,  and  race,  and  masquerade. 
And  set  down  fortune  in  thy  debt 
For  coach  and  six  and  coronet. 
What  says  she  now  ?    Can  palmistry 
With  fairer  omens  greet  the  eye  ? 
Yes,  dearer  still  the  hopes  she  sends — 
Long  life  to  Charlotte's  dearest  friends  1 
Herself,  life,  health,  and  lasting  bloom, 
And  nobler  hopes  beyond  the  tomb." 

"  BODRYDDAN,  Kjth  January  1823. 
"  Dearest  Charlotte — I  apologised  for  the  shortness  of  my 
last  letter  by  telling  you  that  I  was  engaged  in  the  discussion 
of  an  affair  of  much  importance  to  me  and  mine.  I  am  now  at 
liberty  to  tell  you,  though  still  in  confidence,  that  my  name  has 
been  laid  before  the  King  for  his  approbation  as  the  new  Bishop 
of  Calcutta.  This  appointment  is  one  which  in  my  past  life  I 
have  often  fancied  I  should  like,  and  hoped  I  should  do  good  in. 
I,  howe\er,  in  the  first  instance  declined  it,  both  from  reluctance 
to  leave  my  parents  and  my  many  dear  friends,  and  still  more 
from  the  apprehension  that  the  climate  would  be  injurious  to  the 
health  of  my  child.  This  last  and  greatest  fear  has  been  in  a 
considerable  degree  removed,  and  the  situation,  contrai7  to  all 
expectation  and  probability,  having  still  remained  open  for  my 
acceptance,  I  thought  it  my  dut)',  after  long  deliberation,  and,  I 
will  add,  after  sincere  and  hearty  prayer,  to  alter  my  former 
determination.  I  have  since  been  more  and  more  satisfied  that 
I  have  done  well,  and  it  is  a  comfort  to  me  that  all  my  relations, 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  123 

who  at  first  were  strongly  opposed  to  my  accepting  the  offer,  have 
in  a  great  degree  relaxed  their  objections.  In  a  worldly  point  of 
view,  the  situation  has  certainly  many  inducements  ;  it  has  a 
salary  of  ^5000,  though  this  is  materially  lessened  by  the  great 
expenses  of  the  station,  and  of  India  ;  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years 
I  may  return  with  a  pension  of  ^1500,  and  in  the  meantime  I 
am  to  occupy  a  distinguished  rank  in  the  society  of  an  important 
colony.  Still  my  friends  flattered  me  with  the  hope  of  future 
notice  nearer  home,  and  I  can  say  with  truth  that  the  question  of 
interest  was  so  nearly  balanced  that  I  should  never  have  con- 
sented thus  to  banish  myself  if  I  had  not  thought  it  wrong  to 
decline  a  great  and  distinguished  opportunity  of  professional  exer- 
tion for  the  chance  of  future  good  things  at  home,  and  for  the 
pleasure  of  society  and  friendship. 

"  My  departure  from  England,  I  hope,  will  not  be  till  June.  I 
am  now  going  to  town  for  the  term  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  return 
to  Hodnet  the  14th  or  i  5th  of  February  to  remain  till  after  Easter, 
so  that  I  shall  have  the  intervening  time  to  take  leave.  This  is, 
alas  !  a  mournful  word,  and  my  heart  feels  sad  when  it  recurs  to 
me,  but  I  have  the  comfort  of  thinking  that  most  of  my  dearest 
friends  are  younger  than  myself,  and  that,  if  my  own  life  is  spared, 
I  may  hope  to  see  them  again,  and  pass  the  evening  of  my  life 
in  their  society.  I  hope,  too,  and  believe  that  they  will  not  forget 
me,  and  that  our  thoughts  and  prayers  may  reach  each  other 
though  there  are  oceans  and  continents  between  us.  For  myself, 
my  main  anxiety  must  now  be  to  continue  to  deserve  their  good 
opinion,  and  to  work  to  the  best  of  my  power  my  Master's  will  in 
the  strange  land  to  which  His  providence  is  sending  me.  I  need 
not  add  how  great  a  satisfaction  it  is  to  me  that  Emily  fully  coin- 
cides in  all  my  views  and  partakes  in  all  my  feelings. 

"  Pray  for  me,  my  kind  friend,  and  let  me  sometimes  hear  from 
you,  and  continue  to  believe  me,  ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

"  Regd.  Heeer." 

"  Dearest  Charlotte — Your  letter  has  given  me  more  acute 
pain  than  any  which  I  have  felt  since  the  agitation  of  this  busi- 
ness. I  think  of  you,  good,  kind  as  you  are,  in  affliction,  shunning 
the  society  of  your  friends,  and  all  on  my  account.  To  think 
that  you  suspect  me  of  coldness  or  insincerity  in  not  sooner  telling 
you  my  plans,  but  allowing  you  to  gather  the  first  intimation  of 
them  from  newspapers,  and  to  join  all  this  to  the  certainty  that  1 
am  so  soon  to  leave  England,  and  perhaps  to  leave  you  for  life, 
under  an  impression  so  unfavourable  to  me,  is  ver^'  hard  to  be 


124 


BISHOP  HEBER 


borne.  Believe  me,  my  dear  friend,  when  the  proposal  was  first 
made  to  me  by  C.  W.  Wynn,  it  was  made  to  me  under  the  pledge 
of  secrecy  if  I  refused  it,  and  for  the  obvious  reason  that  the 
person  to  whom  it  might  next  be  offered  might  receive  the  offer 
as  a  greater  compliment.  I  was  only  permitted  to  impart  it  to 
my  wife,  my  brother,  my  mother,  and  father-in-law,  and  after- 
wards to  a  medical  man.  When,  therefore,  I  declined,  I  felt 
myself  bound  to  say  no  more  on  the  subject,  and  I  know  not  how 
the  report  got  wind,  unless  by  the  \  anity  of  some  of  my  friends, 
who  thought  it  a  fine  thing  for  me  to  refuse  a  Bishopric,  or  by  the 
gossiping  of  some  persons  connected  with  the  Government. 
When  I  changed  my  mind  and  determined  to  accept  it,  you  were 
among  the  very  first  to  whom  I  communicated  it.  Gladly  indeed, 
while  agitated  with  an.xious  doubts,  would  I  have  reposed  my 
cares  on  your  friendship,  and  applied  to  your  kind  and  sensible 
and  Christian  advice  in  a  question  which  with  me,  all  along,  has 
been  mainly  one  of  conscience.  You,  my  beloved  friend,  doubt 
my  motives  being  perfectly  pure  and  Christian.  Alas  !  who  can 
answer  for  all  the  self-deceit  of  his  own  heart  ?  Yet  I  am  not 
conscious  of  having  been  swayed  by  worldly  motives  more  than  a 
man  with  a  wife  and  child  ought  to  be  swayed  by  them,  and  I  can 
say  with  truth  that  I  have  prayed  most  heartily  to  God  for  His 
guidance  and  support,  to  show  me  what  was  best  for  His  glory 
and  my  salvation,  and  to  give  me  strength  to  follow  it. 

"  The  conclusion  at  which  I  arrived  was  that  by  going  to 
India  I  should  obtain  a  greater  power  of  doing  good  than  I  could 
reasonably  hope  for,  for  many  years,  if  at  all,  by  remaining  in 
England.  I  regarded  myself  as  a  soldier  who  must  march 
wherever  the  obvious  advantage  of  the  ser\-ice  calls  him,  though 
he  may  have  better  quarters  elsewhere  and  chances  of  more 
desirable  promotion,  and  I  have  by  degrees,  by  arguments  of 
this  sort,  induced  my  wife  and  all  my  relations,  at  first  adverse, 
at  length  to  agree  in  the  expediency  of  my  going.  As  to  health 
I  have  no  fears.  Rowlands  and  Darwin  both  tell  me  that  my 
constitution  is  remarkably  adapted  for  a  hot  climate,  and  Emily's 
nearly  the  same,  while  for  our  child,  the  worst  to  be  apprehended 
is  that  we  may  be  obliged  after  some  years  to  send  her  to 
England  for  education.  After  all,  who  are  we  that  we  should 
decline  running  a  risk  which  so  many  others  run  ?  or  why  should 
we  doubt  God's  protection  in  India  more  than  Europe,  where  so 
many  younger  and  seemingly  stronger  are  falling  round  us  every 
day  ?  On  the  whole,  I  have  acted  for  the  best ;  and  if  I  have 
acted  on  mistaken  principles,  or  if  vanity  or  avarice  have  secretly 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


125 


swayed  me,  I  hope  God  will  pardon  me,  and  even  turn  this  error 
of  mine  for  good.  My  friends  still  tell  me  that  in  a  worldly  point 
of  view  I  might  have  done  better,  and  even  now  while  writing  to 
you,  the  pain  which  I  suffer,  which  makes  my  throat  tight  and 
my  eyes  swim,  convinces  me  too  well  that  I  give  up  more  worldly 
happiness  than  I  expect  to  find.  Yet  in  my  situation,  both  at 
Hodnet  and  Lincoln's  Inn,  with  my  straitened  circumstances 
and  expensive  habits,  I  had  to  look  forward  to  many  privations 
which  would  have  been  painful  to  my  feelings  and  injurious  to  my 
character.  I  felt  the  increasing  risk  of  living  too  much  in  com- 
pany, of  becoming  a  candidate  as  a  popular  preacher  for  applause 
or  patronage,  of  dangling  after  court  favour,  and  perhaps  con- 
forming too  much  my  own  opinions  to  what  were  fashionable  and 
likely  to  promote  my  rise  in  my  profession,  in  short,  in  a  bad 
sense  of  becoming  all  things  to  all  men. 

"You  yourself,  my  beloved  sister,  have  cautioned  me  against 
this  defect  in  my  character,  a  defect  which  would  naturally  in- 
crease in  proportion  as  my  circumstances  became  worse,  my 
situation  more  dependent,  and  my  habits  of  life  more  conversa- 
tional. From  these  temptations  I  now  escape.  Where  I  am 
going  I  shall  have  no  further  preferment  to  look  for,  and  though 
the  appointments  (for  the  country)  are  not  very  large,  I  shall  have 
competency  and  independence.  By  entirely  changing  the  scene 
of  my  life,  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  the  most  favourable 
kind  to  begin  my  life  anew,  and  to  form  my  daily  conversation  and 
habits  after  the  rules  of  what  I  know  to  be  right,  but  which, 
among  my  old  familiars,  and  those  whose  ridicule  I  feared,  I  have 
been  too  slow  in  adopting.  These  advantages  are  surely  worth 
buying  at  the  price  of  some  worldly  anguish.  But  this  is  not  all. 
I  hope  it  is  not  vanity,  but  my  friends,  even  while  unwilling  that 
I  should  go  to  India,  have  told  me  that  I  am  better  qualified 
than  most  men  to  do  good  there,  and  I  have  some  reasons  for 
myself  thinking  so.  I  am  moderately  quick  at  learning  languages, 
and  hope  to  master  the  Persian  and  Hindostani  so  as  soon  to  be 
able  occasionally  to  preach  to  the  heathen.  I  know  a  good  deal 
of  Eastern  manners  and  history,  so  that  I  should  not  be  quite  in 
a  strange  country.  I  am  (what  not  many  clergymen  at  this 
moment  are)  on  good  terms  with  and  well  thought  of  both  by  the 
Evangelicals  and  High  Churchmen,  and  can,  therefore,  advan- 
tageously correspond  with  the  missionary  societies  connected  with 
either  party,  and  perhaps  prevent  the  jealousies  of  both  from 
interfering  with  the  success  of  their  labours.  I  am  strong  and 
healthy  and  can  bear  the  sea,  circumstances  very  desirable  to  a 


126 


BISHOP  HEBER 


bishop,  a  great  part  of  whose  time  must  be  passed  in  voyages  and 
long  journeys,  since  all  India,  Ceylon,  and  Pulo  Penang  are  in 
my  diocese,  and  it  is  my  intention  to  visit  the  greater  part  of  the 
different  ecclesiastical  stations  every  year.  I  may  add  (what, 
however,  I  must  beg  you  to  keep  a  strict  secret)  that  the  Govern- 
ment and  Directors  are  much  pleased  with  my  accepting  the 
appointment,  and  have  given  me  a  strong  proof  of  their  confidence 
by  giving  me  a  patent  with  more  ample  authority  than  bishops 
usually  receive  under  the  like  circumstances  ;  and  that  I  shall  be 
in  close  and  immediate  correspondence  with  persons  to  whom  I 
may  possibly  give  information  of  great  advantage  to  the  happiness 
of  millions. 

"  Should  I,  under  these  circumstances,  have  been  justified  in 
remaining  at  home,  and  in  the  performance  of  duties  which, 
important  as  they  certainly  are,  are  far  more  limited  and  more 
easy  to  be  supplied  ?  Still  it  may  be  vanity  and  ambition  which 
draws  me  out,  but  it  is  not,  believe  me,  it  is  not  any  insensibility 
to  the  happiness  and  friendship  I  leave  behind.  So  far  as  con- 
cerns ourselves,  your  portrait  (would  that  it  resembled  you  more  !), 
your  hair,  and  purse  shall  be  my  companions.  Your  letters,  which 
after  we  leave  England  no  eye  but  my  own  shall  see,  will  be  my 
most  welcome  visitors  ;  in  my  morning  and  evening  prayers  your 
name  shall  never  be  omitted,  and  we  are  neither  of  us  of  an  age 
to  forbid  the  reasonable  hope  of  enjoying  each  other's  friendship 
for  many  years  after  my  return. 

"  But,  dear,  dear  sister,  if  you  have  any  regard  for  my  peace 
of  mind,  if  you  have  any  sympathy  for  my  present  regret  and 
anxiety,  be  careful  of  your  health  ;  look  on  the  bright  side  of 
things  ;  continue  to  love  me  and  to  think  well  of  me  ;  make  me 
happy  by  enabling  me  to  believe  that  you  are  returned  to  the 
society  of  your  family,  to  the  duties  and  amusements  of  your 
station  ;  let  us  meet,  as  we  shall  (I  trust)  meet  in  about  three 
weeks'  time,  with  smiling  countenances,  and  part,  not  as  for  ever 
and  without  hope,  but  with  prayer,  with  courage,  and  Christian 
cheerfulness. 

"  I  will  write  again  next  week  to  tell  you  how  my  sermon  goes 
off,  and  to  communicate  any  particulars  which  I  may  have  learned 
concerning  my  time  of  leaving  England,  my  consecration,  and 
other  circumstances  of  the  appointment.  I  am  to  dine  at  C.  W. 
Wynn's  to-morrow,  to  be  introduced  to  Lord  Amherst  and  a 
large  party  of  Indian  Directors,  from  whom  I  hope  to  obtain 
much  useful  information.  Do  not  think  that  I  shall  forget  the 
Bow-meeting  song,  though  I  shall  write  it  with  a  heavy  heart. 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


127 


Yet,  if  it  were  not  for  the  friends  I  leave  behind,  I  should  sail  for 
India  gaily.  As  it  is,  I  shall  think  of  some  of  the  lines  in  my 
own  'outward-bound  ship.'  But  there  is  another  and  a  better 
world,  and  the  more  we  fix  our  attentions  on  that,  the  better  we 
shall  be  able  to  bear  what  we  meet  with  and  what  we  forego  in 
the  present  world.  Adieu,  dear  Charlotte,  for  the  present.  To 
those  who  love  God  no  adieu  can  be  eternal.  Give  my  best 
regards  to  your  excellent  father,  mother,  and  sisters.  Two  years 
ago,  alas  !  I  should  have  cheered  myself  in  this  voyage  with  the 
thought  of  being  useful  to  you  all,  and  bearing  letters  and  mes- 
sages to  poor  Anthony.i  Heaven  has  determined  differently.  I 
am  sorry  to  hear  R.  S.  has  been  unwell.  I  will  see  him,  however, 
if  he  is  to  be  seen  ;  the  necessity  of  returning  his  book  is  a  suffi- 
cient excuse. 

"  Have  I  tired  you  with  my  long  letter  ?  I  think  not,  for  you 
(I  know  full  well)  are  really  interested  in  my  fate.  God  bless 
you,  dear  Charlotte.  May  He  grant  us  to  meet  again  in  happiness 
in  this  world,  if  it  is  His  blessed  will  ;  if  not,  in  the  world  where 
sorrow  shall  never  disturb  our  repose,  through  His  Son,  our  Lord 
Jesus.  R.  H." 

The  four  months  of  that  spring  and  early  summer  proved 
all  too  short  for  the  farewells,  the  honours,  and  the  duties, 
public  and  private,  that  he  had  to  face,  and  for  the  solemn 
service  of  consecration.  To  one  college  friend  he  said  :  "  P'or 
England  and  the  scenes  of  my  earliest  and  dearest  recollections, 
I  know  no  better  farewell  than  that  of  Philoctetes."  The 
passage  -  is  that  in  which  the  suffering  hero  bids  farewell  to 
the  sea-girt  plain  of  Lemnos,  and  prays  that  he  may  be  wafted 
safely,  with  fair  voyage,  to  the  city  whither,  with  the  counsel 
of  friends,  he  was  being  led  by  Almighty  God.  Heber 
could  not  then  imagine  a  subtler  meaning  in  the  beautiful 
words,  for,  as  Troy  could  not  fall  without  Philoctetes,  the 
brief  career  and  sudden  death  of  the  Bishop  were  to  have 
their  appointed  place  in  the  conversion  of  India. 

The  University  of  Oxford  conferred  on  him  by  diploma  the 

^  Probably  A.  Dod,  see  Ormerod. 
^  Xaip',  d  Kriixvov  iriSov  d/j.(pia\oi', 

"EkS' t)  ixeydX-q  Moipa  KO/xl^ei 
Vvuifiri  re  <pl\o]i>,  x'^  wavSaixarup 
Aal/j-ay,  8s  raCr'  iiriKpavev. 


;28 


BISHOP  HEBER 


degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  The  Fellows  of  All  Souls 
desired  him  to  sit  for  that  portrait  of  the  Bishop  which  adorns 
their  hall.  He  had  to  preach  in  St.  Mary's,  to  complete  his 
term  in  Lincoln's  Inn,  to  preach  in  St.  Paul's,  London,  and  to 
preach  not  only  in  Hodnet  but  in  Malpas.  Next  to  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford  the  first  whom  he  informed  of  his  appoint- 
ment was  the  parish  clerk  of  Hodnet,  through  whom  he 
ordered  a  distribution  of  coals  to  the  poor  during  the  severe 
weather  of  February.  The  inhabitants  of  the  parish  com- 
bined, high  and  low,  to  present  their  beloved  Rector  with  a 
piece  of  plate,  "  with  the  hope  that  it  may  remind  him  in  a 
far-distant  land  of  those  who  will  never  cease  to  think  of  his 
virtues  with  affection  and  of  his  loss  with  regret."  The  pre- 
sentation of  this  memorial  followed  his  farewell  sermon  in  the 
church  where  he  had  ministered  for  sixteen  years.  Not  less 
trying  was  his  visit  to  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  his  adieux  to 
friends  like  Mrs.  Dod  of  Edge,  who  sent  him  forth  with  this 
blessing : — 

"Well,  Reginald  (for  I  never  can  call  you  'my  Lord'),  God  be 
with  you  wherever  you  go.  You  have  done  much  good  at  home, 
and  if  you  ever  effect  half  what  you  purpose  for  India,  your  name 
will  be  venerated  there  to  the  end  of  time.  I  owe  you  much,  and 
you  will  always  have  my  prayers  for  your  welfare." 

He  entered  the  pulpit  of  his  father's  church  at  Malpas  for 
the  first  and  last  time  when  he  preached  to  the  people  who 
had  known  him  in  childhood  and  youth  the  most  solemn 
of  all  his  exhortations — that  on  Time  and  Eternity — which  he 
was  to  preach  again  in  Madras  just  before  his  own  end :  IVe 
look  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  hut  at  the  things  which  are 
not  seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal ;  but  the 
things  which  are  not  seen  are  etei'tial  (2  Cor.  iv.  18). 

Like  Charlotte  Dod,  there  was  another  of  his  chosen  dis- 
ciples and  friends  whose  heart  was  torn  at  the  approaching 
parting.i  Maria  Leycester  thus  committed  to  her  journal  her 
searchings  of  heart : — 

^  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare  writes  of  her  at  this  time  (vol.  i.  p.  45):  "The 
blow  was  incomparably  most  severe  to  Maria  Leycester,  who  for  many  years 
had  been  like  a  sister  to  him,  and  who  had  derived  her  chief  home-pleasures 
from  his  society  and  that  of  Mrs.  Heber." 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


Fcliruaiy  1S23. 

"The  extreme  suffering  I  felt  on  first  hearing  of  the  intended 
departure  of  the  Hebers  for  India  has  now  passed.  Those 
vividly  painful  feelings  seldom  continue  long  in  the  same  form 
when  the  necessity  for  exertion,  variety  of  society,  and  change 
of  place  call  upon  the  mind  for  fresh  thoughts.  But  though 
the  immediate  shock  is  over,  and  my  mind  is  by  time  habituated 
to  the  idea,  so  that  I  can  now  think  and  write  of  it  calmly,  it  is 
no  less  a  source  of  the  deepest  sorrow  to  me.  Nor  is  it  merely 
in  the  pain  of  parting  with  such  friends  that  I  shall  feel  it.  It 
will  be  in  the  daily  loss  I  shall  experience  of  kind  and  affectionate 
neighbours,  of  an  interest  always  kept  up,  of  the  greatest  part 
of  my  home  enjoyments. 

"  I  had  so  little  foreseen,  at  any  time,  the  possibility  of  this 
event,  that  I  was  totally  unprepared  for  it,  and  although  now  it 
appears  quite  natural  that  Reginald,  who  is  so  peculiarly  fitted 
for  the  situation,  should  wish  for  it,  I  could  hardly  at  first  believe 
it  to  be  possible.  .  .  .  The  remembrance  of  the  last  two  years 
rises  up  before  me  so  much  the  more  endeared  from  the  thought 
that  those  happy  days  will  never  again  return.  There  is  nothing 
out  of  my  own  family  which  could  have  made  so  great  a  blank  in 
my  existence  as  this  will  do.  For  so  many  years  have  they  been 
to  me  as  brother  and  sister,  giving  to  me  so  much  pleasure,  so 
much  improvement.  It  will  be  the  breaking  up  of  my  thoughts 
and  habits  and  affections  for  years,  and  scarcely  can  I  bear  to 
think  that  in  a  few  months  those  whom  I  have  loved  so  dearly 
will  be  removed  from  me  far  into  another  world — for  such  does 
India  appear  at  this  distance." 

"Zm  April  1823. 

"  So  much  has  one  feeling  occupied  every  thought  for  the 
last  two  months,  that  it  seems  but  a  day  since  I  wrote  the  last 
few  lines — with  this  only  difference,  that  the  reality  is  so  much 
more  bitter  than  the  anticipation,  and  that  the  certainty  of  my  loss 
is  now  brought  back  to  me  by  the  knowledge  that  I  shall  never 
see  them  again,  here  or  at  Hodnet.  The  chord  is  snapped 
asunder,  and  I  feel  in  its  full  force  the  effect  it  must  have  on  my 
future  happiness.  I  look  around  in  vain  for  a  bright  spot  to 
which  to  turn.  All  that  I  valued  most,  out  of  my  own  family,  will 
be  at  once  taken  from  me,  and  it  will  leave  a  blank  that  cannot 
be  filled.  To  find  a  friend  like  Reginald,  with  a  heart  so  kind, 
so  tender,  and  a  character  so  heavenly,  must  be  utterly  impossible, 
K 


BISHOP  HEBER 


and  the  remembrance  of  all  the  interest  he  has  shown  in  me,  and 
all  his  kindness,  makes  the  feeling  of  his  loss  very  diflficult  to 
bear."  .  .  . 

"  1st  August  1823. 
"  This  evening  I  have,  for  the  first  time,  ventured  to  go 
by  Hodnet.  It  must  be  done,  and  it  was  better  alone  than 
with  others.  So,  having  dined  early,  I  took  a  long  ride — 
one  of  our  old  rides  which  I  have  so  often  taken  with  him. 
There  stood  the  poor  deserted  Rectory,  with  its  flowers  and  its 
fields  —  the  green  gate,  which  I  have  so  seldom  passed  before 
unopened,  all  looking  exactly  the  same  as  in  days  of  happiness, 
and  now  how  changed  from  their  former  merriment  to  solitude 
and  silence  !  Those  beautiful  park-fields  where  I  have  so  often 
walked,  and  where  I  shall  never  walk  again,  lay  shining  in  the 
evening  sun,  looking  most  tranquil  and  peaceful,  as  if  in  a  world 
so  beautiful  unhappiness  could  not  be  found.  Scarcely  could  I 
believe,  as  I  looked  around  me,  that  all  were  gone  with  whom  I 
had  enjoyed  so  many  happy  days  there,  and  that  those  same 
trees  and  fields  were  alone  remaining  to  speak  to  me  of  the  past, 
every  step  recalling  to  me  some  word  or  look.  As  I  rode  along, 
recollections  crowded  on  me  so  fast  that  I  felt  hardly  conscious 
of  the  present  and  its  gloom,  in  living  over  again  a  period  of  such 
happiness."  .  .  . 

Maria  Leycester  had  then  betrothed  herself  to  Mr.  Martin 
Stow  at  Hodnet,  and  he  had  returned  to  his  Genoa  chaplaincy. 
Heber's  appointment  to  India  seemed  the  death-knell  of  her 
hope,  for  it  was  through  the  Hebers  they  had  met.  On  their 
return  to  Hodnet  for  the  final  farewell  every  visit  of  Maria 
Leycester  became  more  and  more  melancholy : — 

"  The  whole  of  Passion  Week  was  spent  by  them  at  Stoke 
Rectory,  and  they  were  then  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Heber's 
favourite  cousin,  Augustus  Hare,  with  whom  Maria  Leycester  had 
become  intimately  acquainted  during  his  many  visits  at  Hodnet, 
and  who  was  also  the  dearest  friend  of  Mr.  Stow.  It  was  a 
party  that  in  happier  times  would  have  been  delightful,  but  it  was 
now  filled  with  too  bitter  recollections  and  anticipations.  The 
spirits,  however,  in  which  Reginald  Heber  spoke  and  thought  of 
this  new  sphere  opened  to  him  did  much  to  turn  their  thoughts 
towards  the  interests  and  occupations  of  his  future  life.  Each 
day  was  employed  in  walks  to  Hodnet  Rectory,  which  looked  more 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST  131 


and  more  deserted  as  it  was  gradually  emptied  of  all  its  contents, 
and  little  left  but  the  bare  walls  of  the  rooms  which  had  been 
the  scene  of  so  much  enjoyment.  On  Easter  Sunday  the  whole 
party  went  to  Hodnet  Church,  where  Reginald  Heber  preached 
a  beautiful  and  deeply  affecting  farewell  sermon,  in  which  he 
expressed  his  anxiety  to  partake  with  his  friends  for  the  last  time 
of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  which  he  afterwards  administered  to 
them,  '  as  strengthening  that  feeling  in  which  alone  they  would  in 
future  be  united,  till  the  East  and  West  should  alike  be  gathered 
as  one  fold  under  one  Shepherd.'  On  the  following  day  the 
Hebers  left  Stoke.  Maria  Leycester  walked  up  with  them  to 
Hodnet  for  the  last  time,  and  through  life  remembered  the  kind- 
ness of  Reginald  Heber  during  that  walk  —  the  affectionate 
manner  in  which  he  tried  to  soothe  her  grief  at  parting  with  them, 
and  to  talk  of  future  happy  times — the  assurances  he  gave  her 
that  amidst  the  new  interests  of  India  he  should  often  turn  to 
former  friends  and  think  of  the  days  they  had  passed  together — 
and  that  they  should  still  ever  be  united  in  prayer.  The  whole 
warmtli  of  his  heart  was  shown  in  those  last  moments,  till  they 
parted,  when  he  and  Mrs.  Heber  turned  in  at  the  gates  of  Hodnet 
Hall. 

"As  Maria  Leycester  returned  to  Stoke  across  Hodnet  Heath, 
Augustus  Hare  walked  with  her,  and  his  brother-like  sympathy 
and  affection  gave  her  great  comfort,  and  inspired  her  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  especially  as  he  alone,  except  the  Hebers,  was 
acquainted  with  all  the  circumstances  of  her  relation  to  Mr.  Stow. 
He  spent  the  rest  of  that  day  at  Stoke,  while  waiting  for  the 
coach  which  was  to  pass  in  the  evening. 

"  Meantime,  Bishop  Heber  had  made  the  offer  of  his  Indian 
chaplaincy  to  Mr.  Stow,  who  gladly  accepted  it,  in  the  hope  that 
Miss  Leycester  might  consent  to  accompany  him,  and  that  her 
family,  in  the  knowledge  that  she  would  in  this  case  remain  with 
the  Hebers  and  form  part  of  their  family  circle,  might  be  induced 
to  assent  to  their  marriage.  But  these  hopes  proved  entirely 
fruitless  ;  and  when  Maria  Leycester  accompanied  the  Stanleys 
to  London  to  see  the  last  of  the  Hebers,  she  had  an  interview 
with  Mr.  Stow  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  which  she  quite  believed  to  be  a 
final  one." 

How  that  tragedy  ended  at  Dacca  we  shall  see. 

It  was  on  the  22nd  April  1823  that  Reginald  Heber, 
looking  back  from  the  uplands  of  Newport,  as  he  passed  from 
Shropshire  to  Stafford,  gazed  on  Hodnet  for  the  last  time. 


•32 


BISHOP  HEBER 


His  feelings  burst  forth  unrestrained,  writes  his  wife,  and  he 
uttered  the  words  which  proved  prophetic,  that  he  should 
return  to  it  no  more.  To  Oxford  many  a  contemporary  and 
friend  came  up  to  bid  him  God  speed,  and  from  the  delights 
of  All  Souls  he  went  forth  grateful  and  humbled  by  the  love 
of  his  fellows.  On  the  i8th  May  he  closed  his  lectureship  at 
Lincoln's  Inn  with  a  discourse  of  rapt  eloquence  and  reason- 
ableness on  the  Atonement,  the  leading  peculiarity  of  our 
religion,  "  its  corner-stone  and  master-key,  the  vicarious  and 
expiatory  nature  of  the  Christian  sacrifice" — Ye  are  dead,  and 
your  life  is  hid  with  C/irist  in  God}  'With  exquisite  art  and 
reverence  he  closed  with  an  illustration  meant  to  convey  his 
farewell  to  his  friends  : — 

"  Even  in  this  world  we  may  often  die  ;  and  whosoever  finds 
occasion  to  tear  himself  from  the  friends  of  his  earliest  love  and 
the  scenes  of  his  happiest  recollections,  will  have  experienced 
some  of  the  worst  and  bitterest  pangs  by  which  our  final  dissolu- 
tion can  be  accompanied.  But  it  is  in  the  power  of  us  all  so  to 
fill  up  the  measure  of  our  pilgrimage  in  this  world  as  that  the 
separation  which  we  so  much  dread,  whenever  it  comes,  can 
never  be  eternal  ;  but  our  parting  with  our  friends  may  be  the 
prelude  to  a  happier  and  more  enduring  friendship  in  those 
regions  where  love  is  unalloyed  and  truth  unsuspected,  and  where 
we  shall  reap  their  blessed  harvest  I  " 

As  the  great  congregation  passed  out  into  the  square,  Mr. 
Butterworth,  a  leading  \Vesleyan  Methodist,  exclaimed  to  Sir 
Thomas  Dyke  Acland  : — 

"  '  Oh  sir,  thank  God  for  that  man  !  Thank  God  for  that 
man  ! '  Considering  Mr.  Butterworth's  station  and  influence 
among  the  Wesleyan  methodists,  and  almost  the  whole  body  of 
India  missionaries  not  directly  connected  with  the  establishment, 
I  felt  at  once  all  the  value  of  such  an  impression  upon  his  mind, 
both  as  to  the  disposition  with  which  the  Bishop  would  be  met  by 
these  bodies  on  his  arrival  in  India,  and  the  effect  which  it  was 
clear  his  intercourse  with  them  would  produce." 

So  Acland  wrote  to  Mrs.  Heber. 

The  last  six  weeks  in  London  were  spent  in  engrossing 


'  See  his  Sermons  Preached  in  England  (John  Murray),  1829. 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


33 


duties  "  between  the  India  House,  Lambeth,  the  Board  of 
Controul,  and  the  different  Societies  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel."  On  Sunday,  ist  June,  the  second  Bishop  of  Calcutta 
was  consecrated  in  the  chapel  of  Lambeth  Palace,  as  his  pre- 
decessor had  been — not  in  Westminster  Abbey,  or  St.  Paul's, 
or  Canterbury  Cathedral,  but  as  if  the  Church  of  England 
were  doing  a  deed  of  which  the  Empire  was  ashamed  or 
afraid.  In  Middleton's  case,  nine  years  before,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  would  not  allow  ^  the  publication  of  the 
consecration  sermon  by  Dr.  Rennell,  Dean  of  Winchester. 
We  fortunately  have  Heber's  own  account  of  the  consecration 
in  a  letter  to  Miss  Dod : — 

"Lincoln's  Inn,  Thursday,  Zth June  1823 
"  My  dear  Charlotte  has  indeed  greatly  mistaken  the  cause 
of  my  silence  when  she  attributes  it  to  anything  like  an  unkind 
feeling  towards  her.  The  truth  is  that  I  have  been  more  busy 
than  I  can  say  with  learning  Hindostani,  with  the  daily  and 
homely  engagements  of  packing  up,  receiving  deputations,  attend- 
ing committees,  making  calls  on  friends  and  at  public  offices,  and, 
above  all,  in  preparing  a  sermon  for  the  benefit  of  the  London 
Charity  School,  to  be  preached  in  St.  Paul's  to-day,  and  afterwards 
to  be  printed  with  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge.  That  is  now  over,  and  I  seize  the  first 
moment  to  write  what  still  must  be  a  short  and  hasty  letter  to  one 
whose  friendship  I  most  sincei-ely  value,  and  whose  kind  recollec- 
tions I  always  hope,  however  far  removed  from  her,  to  retain. 

"  The  ceremony  of  my  consecration  was,  as  you  may  well  believe, 
a  very  awful  and  impressive  one.  Few  persons  were  admitted  to  see 
it,  but  the  Archbishop  kindly  invited  my  brother,  and  Mrs.  Manners 
.Sutton  asked  Emily,  with  leave  to  bring  two  friends,  who  were 
Mrs.  Williams  Wynn  and  Mrs.  Thornton.  The  Archbishop  read 
the  service  beautifully,  and  I  was  much  affected.  God  grant  that 
the  feelings  so  excited  may  be  permanent !  When  you  read  what 
I  then  undertook,  by  His  help,  to  observe  and  do,  you  will  not 
wonder  that  I  was  agitated.  The  Saturday  following  I  had  a 
private  audience  of  the  King  (he  not  being  well  enough  to  hold 
a  levee),  and  kissed  hands  as  usual.  On  this  occasion  I  was 
neither  bustled  nor  shy  ;  but,  as  I  had  not  seen  him  even  in  public 


'  Life  of  Bishop  Middleton,  by  Trofossor  C.  Webb  le  Bas,  M.A.,  vol.  i. 
p.  52  (Rivingtons,  1831). 


134 


BISHOP  HEBER 


for  many  years,  I  looked  at  him  as  attentively  as  I  could  do  with- 
out incivility  or  disrespect  to  see  whether  he  answered  the  idea 
which  I  had  formed.  I  do  not  think  he  did.  I  expected  an 
older  and  more  infirm  man.  He  was  lame  indeed,  with  his  feet 
in  flannels,  but  his  countenance  healthy,  his  way  of  sitting  up 
extremely  upright,  his  voice  loud  and  firm,  and  altogether  look- 
ing like  a  hale  man  of  eight-and-forty.  Yet,  at  this  very  moment, 
the  newspapers  of  London  were  spreading  a  story  of  his  being  at 
the  point  of  death. 

"  Since  that  time  I  have  had  nothing  grand  or  gaudy  till  yester- 
day, when  I  dined  with  the  East  India  Directors  at  a  monstrous 
table  covered  with  turtle  and  French  wines,  and  was  obliged, 
against  my  will,  to  make  a  speech  to  thank  them  for  their 
kindness  in  giving  me  a  house  and  shortening  my  term  of  resi- 
dence. To-day  I  preached  at  St.  Paul's.  This  last  has  been, 
beyond  a  doubt,  the  finest  sight  and  sound  I  ever  saw  or  heard. 
The  dome  and  broad  aisle  of  the  church  was  crowded  with  well- 
dressed  folks  (no  fewer  than  7000  in  number,  as  one  of  the 
stewards  informed  me)  ;  an  immense  orchestra  in  front  of  the 
organ  filled  with  the  choir  singers  (the  best  Protestant  singers 
in  London)  in  surplices,  and  above  5000  boys  and  girls  ranged 
in  an  amphitheatre  all  round,  in  uniform  dresses,  and  packed  so 
close,  and  ranged  on  so  steep  a  declivity,  that  the  whole  looked  like 
a  tapestry  of  faces  and  clothes.  Whenever  they  sat  down  or 
stood  up  the  rustle  was  actually  like  very  distant  thunder.  And 
their  singing  !  I  never  felt  anything  of  the  kind  so  strangely 
and  awfully  impressive.  It  was  not  like  singing,  but  like  the  sound 
of  winds,  waters,  birds,  and  instrumental  music  all  blended  ;  and 
yet  one  distinguished  the  words,  with  the  exception  of  the  corona- 
tion anthem,  in  which  their  Hallelujah  was  very  magnificent.  The 
Psalms  selected  were  the  most  simple  that  could  be  fixed  on — the 
1 00th,  the  I  13th,  and  the  104th  ;  and  in  this  last  every  line  told. 
I  had  nearly  got  into  a  sad  scrape,  the  person  who  was  to  send 
my  lawn  sleeves,  etc.,  having  made  a  mistake,  and  sent  a  common 
clergyman's  gown.  I  did  not  find  it  out  till  I  went  to  robe,  but 
hurried  immediately  to  the  tailor,  and  luckily  succeeded  in  getting 
my  things  just  in  time.  The  pulpit  was  ill  contrived,  and  the 
sounding-board  too  low.  I  gave  up  all  hope  of  being  heard  by 
more  than  those  immediately  round  me,  but  exerted  my  voice  as 
much  as  I  could,  and  succeeded  better  than  I  expected. 

"  I  am  now  at  home  again,  but  have  not  yet  got  through  the 
fatigues  of  the  day,  being  still  sitting  in  my  gown  and  cassock 
expecting  the  carriage  to  take  me  back  into  the  city  to  a  monstrous 


CHIEF  MISSIONARY  TO  THE  EAST 


135 


tavern  dinner  with  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  wise  Duke  of  Glo'ster. 
To-morrow  I  am  to  receive  a  farewell  address  from  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge.  ...  I  have  been  by  no  means 
well,  but  the  completion  of  my  work  to-day  has  taken  a  load 
from  my  mind,  and  I  am  five  times  the  man  I  was  yesterday.  I 
shall  send  the  song  1  to  Newcome.  I  have  a  book  to  send  you, 
but  will  not  keep  this  letter  back  any  longer.  God  Almighty  bless, 
preserve,  and  prosper  you  !  Give  my  kindest  love  to  your  mother, 
sister,  and  father.  Wherever  I  go  I  shall  never  cease  to  think  of 
you  all  with  sincere  gratitude  and  affection.  Adieu !  dearest 
Charlotte,  and  do  not  quite  forget  your  affectionate  friend, 

"  Rf.ginald  Calcutta." 

To  the  valedictory  address  of  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge,  which  was  delivered  by  the  Bishop  of 
Bristol,  Bishop  Heber  replied  in  the  fulness  of  his  heart 
in  a  way  thus  described  by  Sir  Robert  Harry  Inglis,  who 
accompanied  him : — 

"  I  was  therefore  equally  delighted  and  surprised  to  hear  him 
speak,  though  with  feelings  justly  and  naturally  excited,  with  a  com- 
mand of  language,  and  with  a  fulness  and  freedom  of  thought,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  caution  which  became  one  addressing  such  a 
Society  at  such  a  time,  when  every  word  would  be  watched  in  India 
as  well  as  in  England.  We  shall  long  remember  the  sensation 
which  he  produced  when  he  declared  that  his  last  hope  would  be 
to  be  the  chief  missionary  of  the  Society  in  the  East,  and  the 
emotion  with  which  we  all  knelt  down  at  the  close,  sorrowing 
most  of  all  that  we  should  see  his  face  no  more." 

To  his  mother  and  sister  he  sent  this  letter : — 

"...  I  think  and  hope  I  am  going  on  God's  service.  I  am 
not  conscious  of  any  unworthy  or  secular  ends,  and  I  hope  for 
His  blessing  and  protection  both  for  myself  and  for  those  dear 
persons  who  accompany  me  and  whom  I  leave  behind.  God 
Almighty  bless  and  prosper  you,  my  beloved  mother.  May  He 
comfort  and  support  your  age,  and  teach  you  to  seek  always  for 
comfort,  where  it  may  be  found,  in  His  health  and  salvation 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ! 

"  Bless  you,  dear,  dear  Mary — you  and  your  worthy  husband.- 


'  The  second  "  Song  of  the  Bow." 
The  Rev.  Charles  Cowper  Cholmondeley,  his  successor  at  Hodnet. 


36 


BISHOP  HEBER 


May  He  make  you  happy  in  your  children  and  in  each  other,  in 
time  and  in  eternity  1 

"  I  know  we  have  all  your  prayers,  as  you  have  ours.  Believe 
me  that  we  shall  be,  I  hope,  useful,  and  if  useful,  happy  where 
we  are  going  ;  and  we  trust  in  God's  good  providence  for  bringing 
us  again  together  in  peace,  when  a  few  short  years  are  ended,  in 
this  world,  if  He  sees  it  good  for  us  ;  if  not,  yet  in  that  world 
where  there  shall  be  no  parting  nor  sorrow  any  more,  but  God 
shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  all  eyes,  and  we  shall  rejoin  cur 
dear  father  and  the  precious  babe  whom  God  has  called  to  Him- 
self before  us  ! " 

So,  on  i6th  June  1823,  there  went  forth  the  chief  missionary 
of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  East. 


CHAPTER  VII 


INDIA  AND   THE  VOYAGE   IN    1 823 

In  the  flower  of  his  life  and  the  fulness  of  his  powers,  at 
the  age  of  forty,  Reginald  Heber  went  out  to  India.  The 
time  was  propitious ;  the  men  who  guided  the  policy  and 
administration  of  the  East  were  the  ablest  and  most  up- 
right who  have  ever  adorned  the  service  of  the  East  India 
Company.  There  was  one  exception.  A  new  Governor- 
General  had  been  appointed  about  the  same  time,  and  had 
sailed  for  Calcutta  only  three  months  before  Heber.  By  a 
series  of  unfortunate  accidents,  the  selection  had  fallen  on 
Lord  Amherst.  The  fact  that  he  had  borne  with  patience 
the  indignities  which  the  Peking  Mandarins  had  cast  on  the 
British  Ambassador,  was  considered  a  better  title  to  the  office 
of  Governor-General  than  the  Madras  services  of  Lord  William 
Bentinck,  who  had  to  wait  for  some  years  longer.  More 
unfortunate  still  was  the  political  event  which,  at  the  last 
moment,  prevented  George  Canning  from  taking  up  the 
appointment  on  the  resignation  of  the  Marquess  of  Hastings. 
On  his  way  down  to  Liverpool  to  bid  his  constituents  farewell 
before  embarking — and  to  be  the  guest,  as  usual,  at  Seaforth 
House,  of  the  father  of  Mr.  ^V.  E.  Gladstone,  then  eighteen 
years  of  age  and  his  devoted  admirer — the  Governor-General 
designate  was  informed  of  the  suicide  of  Lord  Castlereagh, 
then  Marquis  of  Londonderry.  Lord  Liverpool  refused  to 
carry  on  the  Government  without  the  help  of  Canning  as 
Foreign  Secretary,  and  that  brilliant  statesman  never  saw 
India,  which  his  son  was  to  govern  as  the  Queen's  first  Viceroy 
after  the  Mutiny. 


3S 


BISHOP  HEBER 


The  genius  and  the  detailed  experience  of  George  Canning, 
gained  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  would  have 
worthily  crowned  the  administration  of  Lord  Hastings.  For 
the  ten  years  after  the  new  and  more  liberal  charter  of  1813 
had  been  conceded  that  Governor-General  had  ruled  the  East 
in  the  imperial  spirit  of  Warren  Hastings  and  the  Marquess 
Wellesley.  After  victories  of  peace  no  less  than  of  war,  of  public 
works  and  education  as  well  as  over  Goorkhas,  Marathas,  and 
Pindarees,  Lord  Hastings  consolidated  the  Empire  of  India 
proper,  and  left  ten  millions  sterling  in  the  treasury,  with  an 
annual  surplus  revenue  of  two  millions.  In  the  same  period 
Bishop  Middleton  had  been  laboriously  organising  the  new 
diocese.  Had  George  Canning  entered  on  the  one  high  office 
at  the  same  time  as  Reginald  Heber  was  consecrated  to  the 
other,  the  history  of  India  must  have  been  differently  guided. 
What  a  group  of  wise  and  cautious,  as  well  as  brilliant  and  suc- 
cessful administrators  and  soldiers  India  had  !  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone  was  governing  Bombay;  Sir  Thomas  Munro  was 
revolutionising  the  land  system  of  Madras ;  Metcalfe  and 
Malcolm  were  in  the  vigour  of  their  powers  ;  and  Heber's  con- 
nection. Lord  Combermere,  was  soon  to  be  Commander-in-Chief. 
Yet,  because  at  the  head  of  them  all  there  was  Lord  Amherst, 
a  very  ordinary  English  gentleman,  without  experience  or  will, 
the  war  in  Burma  was  so  conducted  as  to  empty  the  treasury, 
add  to  the  debt,  and  arrest  all  that  progress  for  which  Lord 
Hastings  had  made  the  time  ripe.  Even  if  Lord  William 
Bentinck  had  relieved  Lord  Hastings  when  the  latter  vacated 
Government  House,  Calcutta,  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1823, 
the  war  with  Burma  must  have  been  brought  to  a  rapid  con- 
clusion, and  have  paid  its  way  by  the  inclusion  of  fertile  Pegu, 
instead  of  or  along  with  Tenasserim,  in  the  British  Empire,  as 
Munro  desired  ;  and  Hindoo  widows  would  not  have  continued 
to  be  sacrificed  on  the  funeral  pile  as  they  were  for  seven  years 
more. 

The  East  India  Company's  Charter  of  1813,  by  which 
Parliament  had  forced  on  the  Directors  the  bare  toleration 
of  Christianity  and  the  supply  of  Anglican  and  Presbyterian 
services  for  its  own  servants,  began  to  bear  missionary  fruit 
for  the  highest  good  of  the  natives  in  the  year  18 16.  Then 
Corrie  settled  Mr.  Bowley  in  Chunar,  committing  to  him  the 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823 


139 


revision  of  Henry  Martyn's  Hindostani  version  of  tlie  New 
Testament.  Then  the  first  two  clergymen  of  the  Church  of 
England  who  had  gone  forth  as  missionaries  landed  in  India, 
Rev.  William  Greenwood  at  the  Kidderpore  suburb  of  Calcutta, 
which  he  soon  left  for  the  European  military  invalids  at 
Chunar,  and  Mr.  Norton  at  Travankor.  Then  Lieutenant 
Stewart  founded  the  Burdwan  Mission  of  the  Church  Mission- 
ary Society,  and  then  the  Basel  Missionary  Seminary  was 
established,  afterwards  supplying  that  Society  with  at  least  eighty 
Lutheran  agents.  This  the  Berlin  Seminary  had  previously 
done.  Two  years  before,  the  able  German  Rhenius  had  been 
sent  to  Madras,  and  in  1820  he  began  the  fruitful  Tinnevelli 
Mission,  and  the  Bombay  Mission  was  begun,  following  that 
of  Benares  in  181 7  and  Ceylon  in  181 8.  In  1822  Miss  Cooke, 
who  became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Wilson  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  opened  the  first  school  for  native  girls  in  Calcutta. 
It  was  in  182 1  that  the  older  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  saw  its  first  English  missionaries  to  India  land 
there  for  Bishop's  College — the  two  Cambridge  men,  W.  H. 
Mill  of  Trinity  and  J.  H.  Alt  of  Pembroke  Hall.  But  up  to 
1823  no  ordained  missionary  of  the  Church  of  England  was 
at  work  teaching  or  preaching  to  its  peoples  in  their  own  tongue, 
and  no  native  convert  had  been  Episcopally  ordained. 

Unsupported  by  missionary  brethren,  for  whom  they  called 
to  England  in  vain,  the  five  evangelical  chaplains  alone  had 
cared  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  Hindoos  and  Musalmans. 
David  Brown,  Claudius  Buchanan,  and  Henry  Martyn,  above 
all,  had  been  true  to  their  Master's  call,  and  had  passed  away. 
Corrie  and  Thomason  were  still  about  the  Father's  business, 
wearing  the  mantle  of  the  young  prophet  who,  after  flashing 
through  North  India,  Arabia,  and  Persia,  had  disappeared  at 
Tokat.  Corrie  indeed  had  been  the  only  practical  bishop 
worthy  of  the  name  in  all  India  till  Heber  delivered  his  charge. 
Thomas  Thomason,  while  influencing  Lord  Hastings,  who  com- 
missioned him  to  draw  up  a  system  of  public  instruction  for 
the  natives,!  which  it  fell  to  Lord  AVilliam  Bentinck,  Macaulay, 
and  Duff  to  inaugurate  on  broader  lines  after  the  next  charter 
o*^  i'^33>  g^ve  himself  to  the  organisation  of  the  Church 

'  Sir  Richard  Temple's  James  Thomason,  the  Chaplain's  son,  p.  29 
(Oxford  1893). 


BISHOP  HEIiER 


Missionary  Society,  of  which  he  became  the  local  Secretary  in 
1817.  He  wrote  :  "We  have  begun  our  missionary  opera- 
tions in  print ;  for  the  first  time  two  of  our  highest  civilians 
show  their  faces  to  the  Indian  public  in  connection  with  a 
professedly  missionary  institution.  We  have  established  a 
monthly  missionary  prayer  meeting  at  my  church.  Missionary 
communications  are  read,  and  prayer  is  offered  up  for  mission- 
ary prosperity.  Ten  years  ago  such  an  event  would  have 
thrown  the  settlement  into  an  uproar."  "  Send  us  labourers, 
faithful  and  labarious  labourers,"  he  cried,  as  Charles  Grant 
and  George  Udny  had  done  a  generation  before. 

In  and  around  Calcutta  itself  there  were  only  six  native 
converts^  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England  in  1823,  when 
Rev.  J.  Wilson  was  joined  by  Rev.  M.  Wilkinson,  whose 
Sketches  of  Christianity  in  North  India  is  an  almost  contem- 
porary authority  of  great  value,  for  it  was  revised  by  Bishop 
Corrie.^ 

"  I  am  ashamed  of  both  our  Universities,"  Wilkinson  wrote. 
"  They  have  given  us  bishops,  but  not  one  missionary.^  AVhat 
is  wanting  is  men — that  precious  commodity — who  shall  be 
wholly  devoted  to  the  work.  Meanwhile,  our  Dissenting 
brethren  are  accumulating  around  us.  At  this  time  we  had 
ten  Dissenting  ministers  of  different  kinds  constantly  labouring 
in  Calcutta ;  their  presses  are  at  work,  their  legs,  their  lungs, 
all  are  engaged  in  the  great  and  good  cause."  Since  181 3 
Calcutta  had  been  as  openly  a  centre  of  William  Carey's  work 
as  Danish  Serampore  itself  The  Serampore  Brotherhood 
alone  had  at  this  time  ten  stations  manned  by  twenty-five 

1  See  p.  233  of  Wilkinson's  Sketches. 

-  See  also  Long's  Hand-Book  of  Bengal  Missions  in  connection  with  the 
Church  of  England  (1848). 

3  In  his  interesting  sketches  of  the  early  history  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  in  \X.i  Intelligencer,  May  1895,  'he  Rev.  Charles  Hole,  B.A. ,  quotes 
the  famous  sermon,  in  1813,  of  the  Rev.  William  Dealtry,  F.R.S.,  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  who  was  the  friend  of  Charles  Grant,  and  tutor  of 
his  sons.  Although  the  bishops  still  held  aloof,  and  the  first  dignitary  of  the 
Church  to  join  the  Society  was  Dean  Ryder  of  ^\'ells  in  that  year,  and 
although  "missionaries  had  to  be  fetched  from  the  Seminary  of  Berlin," 
Dealtry  prophesied  that  which  the  deaths  of  Martyn  and  Heber  brought  about 
— "  .\  new  race  of  missionaries  shall  enter  into  the  labours  of  those  who  have 
been  called  to  their  eternal  reward,  and,  v\  hilst  they  reflect  honour  on  our  own 
Church,  will  confer  benefit  upon  the  universal  Church  of  God." 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823  141 


European  and  Asiatic  missionaries.^  The  Baptist  Society 
of  London  had  five  stations  with  twelve  such  agents.  The 
London  Missionary  Society  was  represented  at  Chinsurah  by 
Mr.  May,  whose  primary  schools  had  formed  a  model  for 
Thoniason  and  Stewart.  How  generously  the  new  Bishop 
bore  himself  to  such  predecessors  in  the  greatest  of  all  con- 
flicts, as  Henry  Martyn  had  done,  we  shall  see. 

Such  was  the  relation  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  England 
to  the  non-Christian  peoples  of  India  and  the  East,  of  Africa 
and  Australasia  also,  when  Reginald  Heber,  after  an  almost 
secret  consecration  service  in  Lambeth  Chapel,  went  forth  as 
their  "  chief  missionary."  Under  a  salute,  however,  the  second 
Bishop  of  Calcutta  joined  the  Thomas  Granville,  East  India- 
man,  Captain  Manning,  on  the  i6th  day  of  June  1823,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames.  At  this  point  that  Indian  Journal 
begins  which  his  widow  dedicated  in  1827  to  the  Right 
Hon.  C.  Watkin  Williams  Wynn,  M.P.,  President  of  the  Board 
of  Control,  and  Mr.  Murray  published  under  this  title, 
Narrative  of  a  Journey  through  the  Upper  Provinces  of  India, 
front  Calcutta  to  Bombay,  182 4- 1825  {with  Notes  upon 
Ceylon) ;  an  Account  of  a  Journey  to  Madras  and  the 
Southern  Provinces,  1826;  and  Letters  Written  in  India. 
The  work  has  ever  since  kept  its  place  in  English  literature 
as  the  most  popular  -  book  on  India  in  the  first  half  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century.  It  is  at  once  a  picture  of  the  peninsula 
and  an  autobiography  of  the  writer,  written  for  his  wife  during 
their  long  enforced  separation,  but  lacking  the  personal  self- 
revealing  which  gives  autobiography  its  charm  and  value. 
To  some  extent  we  are  enabled  to  supply  that  from  his  letters 
to  Charlotte  Dod  :— 

"  Ar  Sea,  Lai.  14.  i  A^orlh,  Zw;^  27.40  West,  12/h  fitly  1823. 
"My  dear  Charlotte — I  sent  you  a  short  and  hurried 
letter  by  an  English  vessel  which  passed  us  off  Cape  Finisterre, 
which  will,  I  trust,  have  long  since  informed  you  of  our  prosperous 


>  Tfu:  Life  of  William  Carey,  D.D.  (2nd.  ed.,  1887,  John  Murray), 
P-  345- 

2  Mr.  John  Murray  has  published  a  cheap  edition  at  3s.  6d.  in  2  vols, 
in  his  "Colonial  and  Home  Library."  The  last  of  many  editions  is  dated 
1873- 


42 


BISHOP  HEBER 


voyage  down  to  the  24th  of  June.  Since  that  time,  and,  in- 
deed, since  our  first  embarkation,  we  have  had  no  other  occur- 
rences than  usually  distinguish  a  hfe  at  sea.  We  have  had  no 
positive  storm,  but  some  very  rough  weather,  some  fair  breezes, 
and  some  contrary  winds,  and  some  cahns,  accompanied  with  a 
heavy  ground  swell,  little  less  annoying  to  raw  navigators  than 
the  severest  storm.  On  the  whole,  however,  thank  God,  our 
progress  has  been  auspicious,  and  it  is  no  inconsiderable  satisfac- 
tion to  one  of  whose  future  life  so  much  is,  like  mine,  to  be  passed 
at  sea,  to  find  that  nothing  which  we  have  yet  encountered  has 
made  me  sick  or  uncomfortable  for  more  than  a  few  minutes.  For 
poor  Emily  I  cannot  say  so  much.  Her  first  fortnight  was  one 
of  almost  unmingled  suffering,  and  still  she  feels  most  painfully 
every  increased  agitation  of  the  ship.  ...  I  hope  that  in  future 
voyages  she  will  be  able  to  enjoy  the  fresh  breeze  and  rapid 
motion  as  much  as  she  used  to  do.  Our  little  girl  continues  well 
and  happy,  and  is  the  pet  of  everybody  on  board,  particularly  of 
your  cousin  Mr.  Chester,  for  whom  her  fondness  is  little  inferior 
to  that  which  she  shows  for  me. 

"  Our  life  is  sufficiently  uniform,  but  to  me  (though  sad  thoughts 
of  all  we  have  left  behind  will  sometimes  intervene,  and  the  sight 
of  a  vessel  bound  to  London  which  passed  us  a  week  ago  brought 
tears  into  the  eyes  of  more  than  one  of  our  party)  it  is  neither 
idle  nor  unpleasant.  I  rise  between  si.\  and  seven.  The  men 
all  assemble  to  breakfast  in  the  common  cabin  at  half-past  eight. 
After  breakfast  and  reading  the  Psalms  and  Lessons  to  Emily,  I 
write  my  journal  or  prepare  my  Hindostani  or  Persian  lessons 
till  twelve,  from  which  time  till  half-past  two  we  are  construing, 
etc.,  with  one  of  the  cadets,  a  very  clever  lad,  who  was  introduced 
to  us  by  Dr.  Gilchrist  in  London,  and  who  both  there  and  during 
our  voyage  has  performed  the  part  of  our  tutor.  At  three  we  sit 
down,  closely  wedged,  to  dinner,  and  after  a  plentiful  and  hand- 
some, though  not  very  elegantly  dressed  meal,  walk  on  deck  till 
tea-time  (six).  Tea  is  followed  by  prayers,  which  I  found  not 
the  least  difficulty  in  introducing,  and  the  rest  of  the  evening  is 
passed  on  deck  and  in  conversation,  either  walking  or  seated,  till 
about  half-past  nine,  when  Captain  Manning  hints  to  us  that  it  is 
bed-time. 

"  On  Sundays,  when  the  weather  allows,  the  quarter-deck  is 
covered  with  an  awning  and  adorned  with  flags,  with  chairs  for 
the  passengers,  and  capstern  bars  to  serve  as  seats  for  the  crew, 
so  as  to  make  really  a  very  handsome  church,  in  which  I  have 
now  twice  read  prayers  and  preached  two  of  my  Hodnet  sermons 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823 


143 


to  a  very  attentive  and  orderly  congregation  of  passengers  and 
crew — altogether  about  150  persons.  With  these  pursuits  and 
occupations  you  will  easily  believe  that  I  have  not  experienced 
much  of  that  burden  of  unoccupied  time  of  which  many  people 
complain  on  shipboard.  Indeed,  I  have  rather  reason  to  com- 
plain that  my  Oriental  studies  and  the  frequent  recurrence  of 
meals  leave  me  sadly  too  little  time  for  general  reading,  or  for 
several  schemes  (such  as  preparing  my  hymns  for  the  press) 
which  I  had  in  some  measure  calculated  on  executing  during  the 
outward  passage.  One  main  deficiency  is  exercise^  for  which  the 
mere  pacing  the  deck  a  few  times  in  the  day  is  but  an  insufficient 
substitute.  I  take  as  much  of  this,  however,  as  I  can,  and  I 
believe  that  even  the  motion  and  progress  of  the  vessel  is,  in 
itself,  a  gentle  and  continual  exercise,  sufficient,  or  nearly  so,  to 
preserve  the  health  of  a  temperate  man.  I  have  of  late,  indeed, 
once  or  twice  ventured  to  fence  with  one  of  the  cadets  ;  but,  as 
this  may  be  objected  to  as  not  altogether  an  Episcopal  amuse- 
ment, I  do  not  care  to  do  it  too  often  or  too  long  together. 

"  In  other  respects  the  animal  enjoyment  of  a  voyage  is  certainly 
considerable,  so  far  as  fine  air,  keen  appetite,  the  enjoyment  of 
perfect  health,  and  the  sight  of  many  unusual  and  interesting 
objects  can  make  a  man  happy.  Of  land,  indeed,  we  have  seen 
nothing  but  a  distant  glimpse  of  Madeira  ;  but  our  climate,  though 
decidedly  tropical,  is  neither  oppressive  nor  enervating  ;  and  the 
sea  and  sky  around  us  offers  much  on  which  I  can  gaze  with 
pleasure.  The  clearness  of  the  air  is  great,  and  we  are  now 
beginning  to  look  on  to  the  sight  of  the  constellations  of  the 
southern  hemisphere,  more  particularly  the  brilliant  '  cross '  of 
which  we  have  heard  so  much,  and  with  which  in  my  mind  a  sort 
of  romantic  interest  has  always  been  mingled.  We  have  had 
visits  from  grampuses,  sharks,  and  whales,  and  shoals  or  flights 
(call  them  which  you  will)  of  flying  fish  are  continually  skimming 
round  us,  the  sun  shining  from  their  white  and  blue  scales,  and 
at  a  distance  and  at  first  sight  not  unlike  flocks  of  swallows. 
What  has  most  struck  me,  however,  is  the  deep  and  beautiful  blue 
of  the  sea,  so  unlike  the  cold  green  glass  which  girds  in  the 
shores  of  Wales  and  Cheshire.  This,  where  the  breeze  curls  it,  is 
like  lapis-lazuli  streaked  with  silver,  and  in  the  vessel's  wake,  when 
agitated  by  the  motion  of  the  rudder,  it  assumed  all  tints,  from 
light  green  to  the  glossy  purple  of  a  peacock's  neck.  And  by 
night  (though  the  night  falls  but  too  fast  in  these  latitudes,  and 
we  have  none  of  that  delicious  twilight,  that  blending  of  evening 
and  day,  which  is  so  great  a  charm  in  dear  England)  yet  it  is  as 


'44 


BISHOP  HEBER 


glorious  to  remark  the  phosphoric  tinge  on  every  wave,  and  to 
enjoy  the  dewless  and  cloudless  serenity  of  the  sky  and  moon. 
Such  skies  we  have  looked  on  for  the  last  two  or  three  evenings, 
and  such  nights  certainly  are  not  the  less  enjoyed  by  the  help  of" 
(remainder  missing). 

Thirty  years  had  passed  since  the  Kron  Princcssa  Maria 
from  Copenhagen  had  taken  Carey  to  Serampore. 

"  \%th  July  1823. 

"  A  sail  was  seen  ahead,  steering  the  same  course  with 
ourselves.  On  nearing  her  she  showed  Danish  colours.  Captain 
Manning  expressed  some  little  surprise  at  this  meeting.  The 
Danish  flag,  he  said,  was  almost  unknown  in  India,  whither, 
apparently,  this  vessel  was  bound.  The  Danes  have,  indeed,  a 
nominal  factory  and  a  consul  at  Serampore ;  but  what  little 
commerce  is  carried  on  is  in  the  ships  of  other  nations.  In  the 
harbour  of  Calcutta  (and  no  large  vessels  mount  so  high  as 
Serampore)  he  had  never  seen  the  Danish  flag.  This  seems 
strange,  considering  how  long  the  Danes  have  been  in  possession 
not  only  of  Serampore,  but  of  Tranquebar." 

"  20///  July  1823. 

"  I  began  to-day  translating  St.  John's  gospel  into  Hindo- 
stani." 

'•28M  July  1823. 

"  We  have  now  been  six  weeks  on  board.  How  little  did 
I  dream,  at  this  time  last  year,  that  I  should  ever  be  in  my 
present  situation  !  How  strange  it  now  seems  to  recollect  the 
interest  which  I  used  to  take  in  all  which  related  to  Southern 
seas  and  distant  regions,  to  India  and  its  oceans,  to  Australasia 
and  Polynesia  !  I  used  to  fancy  I  should  like  to  visit  them,  but 
that  I  ever  should  be  able  to  do  so  never  occurred  to  me.  Now 
that  I  shall  see  many  of  these  countries,  if  life  is  spared  to  me, 
seems  not  improbable.  God  grant  that  my  conduct  in  the  scenes 
to  which  He  has  appointed  me  may  be  such  as  to  conduce  to 
His  glory,  and  to  my  own  sah  ation  through  his  Son  !  " 

In  a  letter  to  the  Right  Hon.  R.  J.  Wilmot  Horton,  he 
distinctly  contemplated  that  he  might  "  carry  my  Australasian 
visitations  into  effect." 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823 


145 


"  10//1  August  1823. 
"  This  morning  the  wind  became  again  moderate,  and  I 
finished  and  preached  my  sermon,  and  afterwards  administered 
the  sacrament  to  about  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  persons,  in- 
cluding all  the  ladies  on  board,  the  captain,  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  under  officers  and  male  passengers,  but,  alas  !  only  three 
seamen.  This  last  result  disappointed  me,  since  I  had  hoped, 
from  their  attention  to  my  sermons,  and  the  general  decency  of 
their  conduct  and  appearance,  that  more  would  have  attended. 
Vet,  when  I  consider  how  great  difficulty  I  have  always  found 
in  bringing  men  of  the  same  age  and  rank  to  the  sacrament 
at  Hodnet,  perhaps  I  have  no  reason  to  be  surprised.  On  talk- 
ing with  one  of  the  under  officers  in  the  evening,  he  told  me 
that  more  would  have  staid  if  they  had  not  felt  shy,  and  been 
afraid  of  exciting  the  ridicule  of  their  companions.  The  same 
feeling,  I  find,  kept  one  at  least,  and  perhaps  more,  of  the  young 
cadets  and  writers  away,  though  of  these  there  were  only  two  or 
three  absentees,  the  large  majority  joining  in  the  ceremony  with 
a  seriousness  which  greatly  pleased  and  impressed  me.  And  the 
same  may  be  said  of  all  the  midshipmen  who  were  old  enough  to 
receive  it.  One  of  the  young  cadets  expressed  his  regret  to  me 
that  he  had  not  been  confirmed,  but  hoped  that  I  should  gi\  e 
him  an  opportunity  soon  after  our  arrival  at  Calcutta.  On  the 
whole,  the  result  of  the  experiment  (for  such  it  was  considered) 
has  been  most  satisfactory  ;  and  I  ought  to  be,  and  I  hope  am, 
very  grateful  for  the  attention  which  I  receive,  and  the  opportuni- 
ties of  doing  good  which  seem  to  be  held  out  to  me.  ...  Of 
the  young  men  who  did  attend,  I  was  happy  to  observe  that  they 
had  all  religious  books  in  their  hands  in  the  course  of  the  even- 
ing, and  that  they  appeared,  indeed,  much  impressed.  How 
different  is  the  treatment  which  I  meet  with  in  the  exercise  of  my 
duties  on  shipboard  from  that  of  which  Martyn  complains  !  A 
great  change,  indeed,  as  everybody  tells  me,  has,  since  his  time, 
occurred  in  the  system  of  a  sea  life.  Most  commanders  of  vessels 
are  now  anxious  to  keep  up,  at  least,  the  appearance  of  religion 
among  their  men." 

"       August  1823. 

"  I  had  the  happiness  of  hearing,  for  the  first  time,  my  dear 
little  Emily  repeat  a  part  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  her  mother 
has  been,  for  some  days  past,  engaged  in  teaching  her.    May  He, 
who  '  from  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings '  can  bring  forth 
L 


[46 


BISHOP  HEBER 


His  praise,  inspire  her  heart  with  everything  pure  and  holy, 
and  grant  her  grace  betimes,  both  to  understand  and  love  His 
name  ! 

To  his  old  curate,  J.  J.  Blunt,  he  confessed,  in  a  letter,  that 
at  forty,  and  with  many  other  cares  on  the  mind,  he  found  it 
a  harder  task  to  learn  a  new  language  than  in  the  days  of  his 
French,  German,  and  Italian  experiences.  But  he  cheerfully 
encountered  the  daily  tedium,  relieving  it  by  philological 
speculations,  and  by  verse  translations  or  paraphrases  of  the 
Lessons,  so  that  when  he  entered  on  his  episcopal  duties  he  was 
able  at  once  to  conduct  the  Hindostani  service,  a  course 
in  which  he  was  followed  long  after  by  Bishops  Cotton  and 
Milman.  Among  the  passengers  he  found  a  destitute  servant 
who  had  been  in  Persia  with  Sir  Gore  Ouseley,  and  was 
returning  to  India.  With  his  usual  kindliness,  the  Bishop  en- 
gaged him,  though  warned  against  the  man  : — 

"The  condition  of  a  converted  native  is,  too  often,  a  very 
tr^'ing  one,  shunned  by  his  own  countrymen,  and  discounten- 
anced and  distrusted  by  the  Europeans  ;  while  many  of  them  are 
disposed  to  fling  themselves  entirely  on  the  charity  of  their  con- 
veners, and  expect,  without  doing  anything  for  themselves,  that 
they  who  have  baptized  should  keep  them.  Such  may  be  the 
character  of  Daniel  Abdullah.  He  is,  however,  now  a  legitimate 
object  of  compassion." 

He  proved  to  be  an  irreclaimable  drunkard,  but  Heber 
a  second  time  helped  him  to  a  situation  where  he  might  be 
watched  and  reformed. 

September  1823. 

"  Drifting  into  the  Pagoda  of  Juggernath.  We  had  prayers 
as  usual,  and  I  preached,  I  hope,  my  last  sermon  on  shipboard 
during  the  present  voyage.  Afterwards  we  cast  anchor  in  twenty- 
five  fathom  water,  with  Juggernath  about  fifteen  miles  to  the 
N.W.,  visible  with  the  naked  eye  from  the  deck,  and  ver>'  dis- 
tinctly so  with  a  glass.  Its  appearance  strongly  reminds  me  of 
the  old  Russian  churches.  To  the  S.W.  of  us,  at  a  consider- 
ably greater  distance,  are  seen  two  small  hills,  said  to  be  near 
Ganjam  : — 

"  Procul  obscuros  colles  humilemque  videmus 
Italian!  ! " 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823 


147 


A  week  passed  before  the  ship  reached  the  old  anchorage 
of  the  East  Indiamen  at  Diamond  Harbour,  where  the  Bishop 
was  received  by  Corrie,  the  senior  chaplain,  and  Mill,  Bishop's 
College  principal.  At  once  he  was  deluged  with  the  arrears 
of  ecclesiastical  business  as  they  sailed  slowly  up  the  Hoogli, 


landing  from  time  to  time  to  see  the  villages  and  talk  to  the 
people.  The  Bishop's  sketch  of  the  first  Bengali  village  at 
which  he  landed,  below  Fulta,  is  here  reproduced. ^  The  first 
experience  of  idol-worship  and  the  surroundings  of  an  idol 
shrine  can  never  be  forgotten  by  the  Christian  observer : — 


"Below  Fulta,  %th  October  1823. 
"  When  associated  with  the  recollection  of  the  objects  which 
have  brought  me  out  to  India,  the  amiable  manners  and  counten- 

'  "I  greatly  regretted  I  had  no  means  of  drawing  a  scene  so  beautiful  and 
interesting ;  the  sketch  I  have  made  is  from  memory,  and  every  way  un- 
worthy of  the  subject,"  Journal,  vol.  i.  p.  15,  fourth  edition,  1829. 


48 


BISHOP  HEBER 


ances  of  the  people,  contrasted  w  ith  the  symbols  of  their  foolish 
and  polluted  idolatry  now  first  before  me,  impressed  me  with  a 
very  solemn  and  earnest  wish  that  I  might  in  some  degree,  how- 
ever small,  be  enabled  to  conduce  to  the  spiritual  advantage  of 
creatures  so  goodly,  so  gentle,  and  now  so  misled  and  blinded. 
'  Angeli  forent,  si  essent  Christian!  ! '  As  the  sun  went  down 
many  monstrous  bats,  bigger  than  the  largest  crows  I  have  seen, 
and  chiefly  to  be  distinguished  from  them  by  their  indented 
wings,  unloosed  their  hold  from  the  palm  trees,  and  sailed  slowly 
around  us.  They  might  have  been  supposed  the  guardian  genii 
of  the  pagoda." 

"Below  Fulta,  loth  October  1823. 
"At  two  o'clock  this  afternoon  we  set  out  for  Calcutta  in 
the  bhoUahs,  and  had  a  very  delightful  and  interesting  passage 
up  the  river,  partly  with  sails,  and  partly  with  oars.  The  country, 
as  we  drew  nearer  the  capital,  advanced  in  population,  and  the 
river  was  filled  with  vessels  of  e\ery  description.  ...  A  white 
staring  European  house,  with  plantations  and  shrubberies,  gave 
notice  of  our  approach  to  an  European  capital.  At  a  distance  of 
about  nine  miles  from  the  place  where  we  had  left  the  yacht,  we 
landed  among  some  tall  bamboos,  and  walked  near  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  the  front  of  a  dingy,  deserted-looking  house,  not  very 
unlike  a  country  gentleman's  house  in  Russia,  near  some  powder 
mills  ;  here  we  found  carriages  waiting  for  us,  drawn  by  small 
horses  with  switch  tails,  and  driven  by  postilions  with  whiskers, 
turbans,  bare  legs  and  arms,  and  blue  jackets  with  tawdr)-  yellow 
lace." 

Driving  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Hoogli  through  Garden 
Reach  and  Kidderpore,  the  party  came  upon  the  Maidan  or 
plain.  To  the  north,  the  city  of  Calcutta  was  seen  in  the 
brief  twilight,  through  which  the  white  palaces  of  Chowringhee 
and  the  new  Government  House  were  seen  glittering.  Then 
they  dashed  into  Fort  WilHam,  across  the  drawbridge,  hearing 
the  clash  of  the  sentries  presenting  arms,  and  the  Bishop 
reached  his  temporary  abode.  That  was  the  Government 
House  of  Clive,  whence  the  Marquis  Wellesley  had  moved 
into  the  stately  palace  which  he  built  in  spite  of  the  grumb- 
ling of  the  Court  of  Directors.  The  lofty  halls  and  rooms 
of  this  building — one  fitted  up  as  a  chapel — have  seen  many 
occupants  since  Reginald  Heber  there  received  the  clergy  of 


BISHOP  HEBER 


the  diocese,  "among  them  my  old  schoolfellow  at  Whit- 
church, Mr.  Parsons,  some  years  older  than  myself,  whom  I 
recollect  when  I  was  quite  an  urchin."  In  the  gloomy  days 
of  '5  7  it  was  the  secure  abode  of  the  ex-king  of  Oudh,  and 
after  him  of  Commissioner  Yeh  during  Lord  Elgin's  China 
War. 

Five  years  before  Heber's  arrival  the  plan  of  the  new 
Cathedral  of  St.  Paul  had  been  designed,  but  it  fell  to  Bishop 
Daniel  Wilson  to  build  that  Hindu-Gothic  church,  beside 
which  stands  the  Bishop's  palace.  Heber's  description  of  the 
old  Cathedral  of  St.  John  and  of  the  Governor- General's 
residence  is  still  vividly  correct : — 

"  Oclober  1S23. 
"Government  House  has  narrowly  missed  being  a  noble 
structure  ;  it  consists  of  two  semicircular  galleries,  placed  back 
to  back,  uniting  in  the  centre  in  a  large  hall,  and  connecting  four 
splendid  suites  of  apartments.  Its  columns  are,  however,  in  a 
palti-y  style,  and  instead  of  having,  as  it  might  have  had,  two 
noble  stones  and  a  basement,  it  has  three  stories,  all  too  low,  and 
is  too  much  pierced  with  windows  on  every  side.  I  was  here 
introduced  to  Lord  Amherst,  and  afterwards  went  to  the 
Cathedral,  where  I  was  installed.  This  is  a  very  pretty  building, 
all  but  the  spire,  which  is  short  and  clumsy.  The  whole  com- 
position, indeed,  of  the  church  is  full  of  architectural  blunders, 
but  still  it  is,  in  other  respects,  handsome.  The  inside  is  elegant, 
paved  with  marble,  and  furnished  with  very  large  and  handsome 
glass  chandeliers,  the  gift  of  Mr.  M'Clintock,  with  a  light  pulpit, 
with  chairs  on  one  side  of  the  chancel  for  the  Governor-General 
and  his  family,  and  on  the  other  for  the  Bishop  and  Archdeacon. 
We  dined  to-day  at  the  Government  House  ;  to  a  stranger  the 
appearance  of  the  bearded  and  turbaned  waiters  is  striking." 

"  121/1  October  1823. 
"  This  was  Sunday.     I  preached,  and  we  had  a  good  congre- 
gation. 

With  this  prayer  Reginald  Heber  entered  on  his  episco- 
pate : — 

"Accept,  O  blessed  Lord,  my  hearty  thanks  for  the  protec- 
tion which  Thou  hast  vouchsafed  to  me  and  mine  during  a  long 


INDIA  AND  THE  VOYAGE  IN  1823  151 


and  dangerous  voyage  and  through  many  strange  and  unwhole- 
some chmates.  Extend  to  us,  I  beseech  Thee,  Thy  fatherly  pro- 
tection and  love  in  the  land  where  we  now  dwell,  and  among  the 
perils  to  which  we  are  now  liable.  Give  us  health,  strength,  and 
peace  of  mind  ;  give  us  friends  in  a  strange  land,  and  favour  in 
the  eyes  of  those  around  us  ;  give  us  so  much  of  this  world's  good 
as  Thou  knowest  to  be  good  for  us  ;  and  be  pleased  to  give  us 
grace  to  love  Thee  truly,  and  constantly  to  praise  and  bless  Thee, 
through  Thy  dear  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our  Saviour.  Amen." 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CALCUTTA  AND   LOWER  BENGAL 
1824 

No  less  than  a  century  and  a  quarter  had  passed,  when  Heber 
entered  on  his  bishopric,  since  King  William's  charter  of 
1698'  had  for  the  first  time  imposed  this  provision  on  the 
East  India  Company — "  We  will  and  appoint  that  the  said 
Company,  and  their  successors,  shall  constantly  maintain  a 
minister  and  schoolmaster  in  the  Island  of  Saint  Helena,  .  .  . 
and  also  one  minister  in  every  garrison  and  superior  factory 
which  the  same  Company,  or  their  successors,  shall  have  in  the 
said  East  Indies,  .  .  .  and  shall  also,  in  such  garrisons  and 
factories  respectively,  provide  or  set  apart  a  decent  and  con- 
venient place  for  Divine  Service  only,  and  shall  also  take  a 
chaplain  on  board  every  ship.  .  .  .  We  do  further  will  and 
appoint  that  all  such  ministers  .  .  .  shall  be  obliged  to  learn 
within  one  year  after  their  arrival  the  Portuguese  language,  and 
shall  apply  themselves  to  learn  the  native  language  of  the  country 
where  they  shall  reside,  the  better  to  enable  them  to  instruct  the 
Gentoos  that  shall  be  servants  or  slaves  of  the  same  Company, 
or  of  their  agents,  in  the  Protestant  religion.  .  .  .  And  we  do 
further  will  and  direct  that  the  said  Company  and  their  suc- 
cessors shall,  from  time  to  time,  provide  schoolmasters  in  all 
the  said  garrisons  and  superior  factories  where  they  shall  be 
found  necessary." 

But  in  spite  of  the  provision  that  whenever  a  chaplain 
died  he  should  be  at  once  succeeded  by  one  taken  from 

'  Charters  granted  to  the  East  India  Company  from  1601  ;  also  the  Treaties 
and  Grants  from  the  year  1756  to  1772,  pp.  220,  221. 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL 


153 


the  first  East  Indiaman  that  arrived,  the  chaplains  were  so 
few  that  even  Calcutta  was  without  a  Protestant  minister  of 
any  kind  till  Ciive  invited  the  missionary  Kiernander  to  come 
from  his  Cuddalor  mission.  There  is  no  evidence  that  any 
one  chaplain  besides  Lord,  of  Sural  and  Bombay,  ever  learned 
an  Oriental  vernacular  or  sought  to  influence  the  natives  for 
their  highest  good.  Not  one  schoolmaster  seems  to  have  been 
sent  out.  The  largest  number  of  chaplains  at  one  time  in  the 
Company's  service  in  Bengal,  Madras,  Bombay,  Prince  of 
Wales's  Island,  St.  Helena,  and  the  factory  in  China,  was 
nineteen.  As  the  East  India  Company  became  transformed 
from  a  purely  commercial  into  a  political  organisation,  its 
directors  and  servants  learned  to  dread  missionary  Christianity 
as  dangerous  to  their  revenues.  Even  to  their  own  factors 
and  troops  the  "  decent  and  convenient  place  for  divine 
service  "  ordered  by  King  William  III.  was  not  supplied  out- 
side of  the  three  Presidency  cities. 

Eight  years  before  that  charter  was  signed,  Calcutta  had 
been  founded  by  Job  Charnock,  whose  tomb  is  still  the  most 
prominent  monument  in  the  churchyard  of  the  old  cathedral, 
and  the  oldest  bit  of  English  masonry  in  India.  Heber 
passed  it  daily.  Behind  it,  in  Hastings  Street,  is  the  house 
of  Warren  Hastings. 

The  first  church  ^  of  St.  John  erected  in  Calcutta,  beside 
the  west  end  of  Writers'  Buildings,  had  been  used  for  forty 
years,  when  it  was  destroyed  in  the  Mohammedan  sack  of  the 
city  the  year  before  the  battle  of  Plassey.  The  cathedral 
church  of  Heber  was  founded  in  1784  by  Warren  Hastings, 
and  opened  three  years  after  by  Lord  Cornwallis,  having 
been  dedicated  to  St.  John  by  a  special  act  of  consecration  sent 
out  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Messrs.  W.  Johnson 
and  T.  Blanshard  were  the  chaplains.  Lieutenant  Agg  of  the 
Engineers  designed  and  constructed  the  building  ;  Lord  Corn- 
wallis afterwards  founded  the  north  gallery,  and  Lord  Minto, 
in  181 1,  enlarged  and  improved  the  south  gallery.  Sir  John 
Zoffany,  the  German  favourite  of  the  Georges  II.  and  III.,  to 
whose  fourteen  years'  residence  in  Calcutta  we  owe  portraits 

*  The  Bengal  Obituary,  being  a  compilation  of  tablets  and  monumental 
inscriptions  from  various  parts  of  the  Bengal  and  Agra  Presidencies,  Calcutta 
1848. 


154 


BISHOP  HEBER 


of  the  Governor-Oenerals  of  the  period,  presented  the  cathe- 
dral with  his  altar-piece,  "  The  Last  Supper,"  by  which,  how- 
ever, he  gave  great  offence  to  one  of  the  citizens,  whose  head 
he  copied  for  that  of  Judas  Iscariot. 

When  the  charter  of  1813  gave  expression  to  the  grow- 
ing demand  of  all  sects  of  Christians  in  the  United  Kingdom 
by  placing  the  Church  establishment  under  a  bishop  and  three 
archdeacons,  permitting  missionaries  to  resort  to  India,  and 
providing  a  fund  for  schoolmasters,  it  did  little  more  than  revert 
to  the  orders  of  1698.  But  the  letters  patent  issued  on  2nd 
May  18 14  constituting  the  British  territories  in  India  a  bishop's 
see,  to  be  called  the  Bishopric  of  Calcutta,  and  to  be  subject  to 
the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Canterbury,  proved  a  fruitful  source 
of  trouble  alike  to  the  first  Bishop  and  to  the  Government 
in  India.  The  selection  of  Dr.  Middleton  was  unfortunate, 
and  not  less  so  was  that  of  Dr.  Bryce  as  the  first  Presby- 
terian chaplain.  Both  were  Churchmen  first  and  Christians 
afterwards.  Both  hated  Dissenters  and  quarrelled  with  each 
other.  Both  considered  their  work  far  superior  to  that  of 
missionaries.  The  nine  years  of  Bishop  Middleton's  episco- 
pate were  passed  in  an  unhappy  struggle  with  the  Company 
and  the  civil  authorities  to  be  allowed  to  do  in  the  East  as  the 
Primate  of  the  historic  Church  of  England  did,  or  at  least  any 
bishop  within  the  province  of  Canterbury.  The  two  volumes 
of  his  Life  by  Le  Bas,  who  was  a  Haileybury  College  professor, 
are  full  of  disputings  and  disappointments,  due  as  much  to  his 
own  official  attitude  as  to  the  defects  of  the  letters  patent. 

It  is  incredible  that  even  so  late  as  the  year  18 13  the 
reverend  biographer  should  thus  write,  "  There  is  one  erron- 
eous view  of  the  Episcopal  office  in  India  which  needs 
correction  even  in  this  country,  and  the  prevalence  of 
which  in  the  East  was  a  source  of  constant  embarrassment  to 
Bishop  Middleton.  It  is  not  unusual  to  imagine  that  the 
president  of  our  Asiatic  Church  is  chiefly  to  be  regarded  as  a 
sort  of  head  missionary,  and  that  his  principal  duty  is  to 
encourage  and  keep  alive  the  work  of  conversion  among  the 
natives.  To  this  view  of  his  office  Bishop  Middleton  firmly 
and  most  justly  opposed  himself  in  the  very  outset  of  his 
administration.  The  primary  object  for  which  he  came  out 
was  to  govern  an  established  Christian  Church,  and  he  con- 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL 


'55 


ceived  that  his  situation  and  authority  would  have  undergone 
no  essential  change  even  if  the  design  of  spreading  the 
Gospel  among  the  Hindoos  had  been  abandoned  by  all  parties 
without  exception."  Hence  "  he  was  uniformly  anxious  to 
keep  the  duties  of  the  clergy  and  those  of  the  missionaries 
separate  from  each  other."  Yet,  to  say  nothing  of  such  a 
chaplain  as  Claudiu.s  Buchanan,  who  had  done  most  to  create 
the  bishopric,  Henry  Martyn  had  shown  how  the  chaplain's 
call  was,  as  much  as  the  missionary's,  one  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature,  and  this  the  charter  of  1698  had 
recognised. 

Bishop  Heber  did  not  simply  present  to  all  this  "such  a 
contrast  as  may  well  exist  between  two  great  and  good  men." 
He  was  exactly  the  opposite,  alike  in  the  wise  and  Christian 
spirit  which  he  showed  to  the  civil  authorities,  the  catholi- 
city with  which  he  welcomed  the  co-operation  of  Dissenters, 
and  the  frank  enthusiasm  which  led  him  from  the  first  to 
magnify  his  office  by  proclaiming  himself  the  chief  missionary. 
It  was  seen  that  more  than  half  of  his  predecessor's  troubles 
had  been  created  or  magnified  by  his  own  temper.  The 
King's  advocate  gave  the  opinion  that,  by  the  terms  of  the 
patent,  every  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  within  the 
diocese  of  Calcutta,  missionary  or  chaplain,  must  have  the 
Bishop's  license.  An  Act  was  passed  ^  relieving  the  Bishop 
from  all  difficulty  in  conferring  orders  upon  natives  of  India, 
and  at  the  same  time  making  his  position  more  comfortable 
as  to  the  expense  of  his  visitations,  length  of  service  for  pen- 
sion, and  an  official  residence  in  Calcutta.  The  result  of 
Henry  Martyn's  and  Corrie's  representations  up  to  18 14  had 
been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  chaplains  to  forty,  and  of 
churches  to  ten.  In  the  next  fifteen  years  the  Church  of 
England  chaplains  alone  numbered  seventy-six,  and  the 
churches  in  use  thirty,  while  six  were  being  built. 

Two  months  after  Middleton's  death,  Archdeacon  Loring 
was  removed  by  the  new  scourge  of  cholera,  and  it  fell  to  the 
Marquess  of  Hastings  to  delegate  the  episcopal  functions  under 
the  patent  to  either  one  of  the  Archdeacons  of  Bombay  and 
Madras,  or  to  two  of  the  clergy.  Most  wisely,  the  Governor- 
General  in  Council,  unwilling  to  disturb  the  Bombay  and 
1  S  and  6  Geo.  IV.  c.  71  of  1824-1825. 


56 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Madras  Presidencies,  chose  the  senior  chaplain,  Mr.  Corrie,  and 
Mr.  Parsons,  the  friend  ahke  of  Martyn  and  Heber,  to  exercise 
the  necessary  jurisdiction  till  the  arrival  of  the  new  Bishop. 
Heber's  first  duty  was  to  select  one  of  the  chaplains  as  arch- 
deacon. It  was  also  his  first  difficulty.  Owing  to  his  neces- 
sary inexperience  of  the  men  a  mistake  might  have  been  made 
at  a  time  when  his  predecessor  had  left  a  legacy  of  personal 
controversies,  and  "another  had  nearly  been  elected."  But 
Mr.  Parsons  kept  the  new  Bishop  right,  and  Mr.  Corrie  was 
appointed  to  the  office  which  he  had  all  along  virtually  filled. 
Very  soon  Heber  learned  to  value  the  character  and  services 
of  Thomason,!  whom  he  transferred  from  the  "  old  "  or  mission 
church  to  the  cathedral  pulpit,  writing  of  him  to  J.  Thornton 
as  "a  very  good  and  a  very  learned  man,  a  child  in  gentleness 
and  facility  of  disposition,  the  most  unsuspicious  being  pos- 
sible, inclined  to  think  well  of  everybody — he  is  an  excellent 
preacher."  Up  to  that  time  no  "  evangelical  "  had  been  one 
of  the  chaplains  of  St.  John's. 

After  his  first  introduction  to  Bishop  Heber,  Thomason 
sent  this  report  to  Charles  Simeon,  who  had  written  out  to 
India  to  prepare  the  way  for  an  appointment  which  was  most 
pleasing  to  the  great  Cambridge  evangelical :  "  I  was  much 
gratified,  and  many  were  made  happy  by  your  account.  .  .  . 
We  have  heard  his  voice,  and  know  his  mind,  and  are  full 
of  thankfulness."  He  thus  impressed  Corrie  :  "  Of  the  natural 
amiability  of  the  man  it  is  impossible  to  convey  an  adequate 
idea.  .  .  .  His  conversation  is  very  lively,  and,  from  his  large 
acquaintance  with  books  and  men,  very  instructive,  while  he 
industriously  seeks  opportunities  of  public  worship,  Sunday 
and  week  day,  and  urges  on  all  the  importance  of  attending 
on  the  means  of  grace.  Surely  this  land  has  cause  of  praise 
to  God  that  such  an  one  has  been  placed  at  the  head  of 
affairs  here." 

The  gratification  of  the  old  friends  of  Henry  Martyn  must 
have  increased  when  they  saw  the  new  Bishop  as  active  in  the 
progress  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  as  he  was  inter- 
ested in  that  of  the  older  Christian  Knowledge  and  Gospel 
Propagation  Committees  and  in  Bishop's  College.    At  this 

'  See  Sargent's  Life  of  Rev.  T.  T.  Thomason.  M.A.  (2nd  ed.),  1834, 
chap.  xi. 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL  157 


time  we  find  Heber  writing  further  to  Thornton  :  "  To  the 
affairs  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  I  have  paid  consider- 
able attention,  and  have  great  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  conducted,  as  well  as  personally  with 
the  Committee  and  all  the  missionaries  whom  I  have  seen." 

As  if  a  diocese  extending  over  half  the  globe,  embracing 
the  continents  of  Africa  and  Asia  from  St.  Helena  to  Canton, 
were  not  large  enough,  the  Act  of  1824  added  to  the  juris- 
diction of  Calcutta  the  whole  of  Australasia,  conferring  on  the 
Archdeacon  of  New  South  Wales  powers  almost  as  large  as  the 
Episcopal.  Heber's  heart  expanded  at  the  prospect  of  one 
day  visiting  every  Christian  community  scattered  over  the  wide 
regions,  that  he  might  confirm  the  churches  and  bring  in 
"  other  sheep  "  to  the  one  fold  of  our  Lord's  teaching.  Mean- 
while he  mastered  every  detail  of  his  metropolitan  charge. 
He  consecrated  the  Government  churches  of  St.  James  and  of 
Dum  Dum,  then  the  chief  artillery  station  near  Calcutta,  by  a 
most  impressive  dedication,  on  the  written  assurance  of  the 
Governor- General  in  Council  that  the  buildings  should  be 
appropriated  to  the  worship  of  God  after  the  forms  and  laws 
of  the  Church  of  England.  He  preached  incessantly,  and 
wrote  sermons  to  make  up  for  the  lack  of  chaplains  as  well  as 
to  give  his  own  message  to  the  people.  Socially,  he  soon 
established  his  ascendency,  as  he  had  done  all  his  life  in 
Oxford,  Salop,  and  London.  What  he  became  to  Lady  Amherst, 
to  the  Governor-General,  and  to  their  circle,  is  seen  less  in  his 
own  Journal  than  in  that  of  Lady  Amherst.^  That  accomplished 
Dane,  Dr.  Wallich,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Company's 
Botanic  Garden,  placed  at  his  service  the  charming  house  at 
Titaghur,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Hoogli,  below  the  Governor- 
General's  park  at  Barrackpore.  There  he  and  his  family 
recruited  their  health,  and  thence  they  crossed  to  Serampore 
in  January  1824.  We  find  these  entries  in  his  Journal  at 
this  time : — 

"  isi  January  1824. 
".  .  .  Returning  one  day  from  Calcutta,  I  passed  by  two  funeral 
piles,  the  one  preparing  for  a  single  person,  the  other  nearly  con- 
sumed, on  which  a  suttee  had  just  taken  place.    For  this  latter 


'  See  Lord  Amherst  and  the  British  Advance  Eastwards  to  Burma,  by 
Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie  and  Richardson  Evans.  O.xford  1894. 


158 


BISHOP  HEBER 


purpose  a  stage  had  been  constructed  of  bamboos  about  eighteen 
inches  or  two  feet  above  the  ground,  o)i  which  the  dead  body  had 
been  laid,  and  under  which,  as  my  native  servants  told  me,  the 
unhappy  widow  had  been  stretched  out,  surrounded  with  com- 
bustibles. Only  a  heap  of  glowing  embers  was  now  seen  here, 
besides  two  long  bamboos,  which  seemed  intended  to  keep  down 
any  struggles  which  nature  might  force  from  her.  On  the  stage 
was  what  seemed  a  large  bundle  of  coarse  cotton  cloth,  smoking, 
and  partially  blackened,  emitting  a  very  offensive  smell.  This 
my  servants  said  was  the  husband's  body.  The  woman  they 
expressly  affirmed  had  been  laid  below  it,  and  ghee  poured  over 
her  to  hasten  her  end,  and  they  also  said  the  bamboos  had  been 
laid  across  her.  I  notice  these  particulars,  because  they  differ 
from  the  account  of  a  similar  and  recent  ceremony,  given  by  the 
Baptist  missionaries,  in  which  it  is  said  that  the  widow  is  laid  by 
the  side  of  her  husband  on  the  platform,  with  her  arm  embracing 
him,  and  her  face  turned  to  him.  Here  I  asked  repeatedly,  and 
received  a  different  account.  Yet  the  missionaries  have  every 
possible  opportunity  of  learning,  if  not  of  actually  witnessing,  all 
the  particulars  of  the  ceremony  which  they  describe.  Perhaps 
these  particulars  vary  in  different  instances.  At  all  events  it  is  a 
proof  how  hard  it  is  to  gain,  in  this  country,  accurate  information 
as  to  facts  which  seem  most  obvious  to  the  senses.  I  felt  very 
sick  at  heart,  and  regretted  I  had  not  been  half  an  hour  sooner, 
though  probably  my  attempts  at  persuasion  would  have  had  no 
chance  of  success.  I  would  at  least  have  tried  to  reconcile  her 
to  life.  There  were  perhaps  twenty  or  thirty  people  present,  with 
about  the  same  degree  of  interest,  though  certainly  not  the  same 
merriment,  as  would  have  been  called  forth  by  a  bonfire  in  Eng- 
land. I  saw  no  weeping,  and  heard  no  lamentations.  But  when 
the  boat  drew  near  a  sort  of  shout  was  raised,  I  believe  in  honour 
of  Brahma,  which  was  met  by  a  similar  outcry  from  my  boatmen." 

"  15//;  January  1824. 
"  Dr.  Marshman,  the  Baptist  missionary  from  Serampore, 
dined  with  me.  Dr.  Carey  is  too  lame  to  go  out.  The  talents 
and  learning  of  these  good  men  are  so  well  known  in  Europe 
that  I  need  hardly  say  that,  important  as  are  the  points  on  which 
we  differ,  I  sincerely  admire  and  respect  them,  and  desire  their 
acquaintance.  In  speaking  of  the  suttee  of  yesterday.  Dr. 
Marshman  said  that  these  horrors  are  of  more  frequent  occur- 
rence within  these  few  last  years  than  when  he  first  knew  Bengal ; 


i6o 


BISHOP  HEBER 


an  increase  which  he  imputes  to  the  increasing  luxury  of  the 
higher  and  middHng  classes,  and  to  their  expensive  imitation  of 
European  habits,  which  make  many  families  needy,  and  anxious 
to  get  rid,  by  any  means,  of  the  necessity  of  supporting  their 
mothers,  or  the  widows  of  their  relations.  Another  frequent 
cause  is,  he  thinks,  the  jealousy  of  old  men,  who,  having  married 
young  wives,  still  cling  to  their  exclusive  possession  even  in  death, 
and  leave  injunctions  either  with  their  wives  themselves  to  make 
the  offering,  or  with  their  heirs  to  urge  them  to  it.  He  is  strongly 
of  opinion  that  the  practice  might  be  forbidden  in  Bengal,  where 
it  is  of  most  frequent  occurrence,  without  exciting  any  serious 
murmurs.  The  women,  he  is  convinced,  would  all  be  loud  in 
their  praises  of  such  a  measure,  and  even  of  the  men,  so  few  would 
have  an  immediate  interest  in  burning  their  wives,  mothers,  or 
sisters-in-law,  that  they  would  set  themselves  against  what  those 
who  had  most  influence  with  them  would  be  so  much  interested 
in  having  established.  The  Brahmins,  he  says,  have  no  longer 
the  power  and  popularity  which  they  had  when  he  first  remembers 
India,  and  among  the  laity  many  powerful  and  wealthy  persons 
agree,  and  publicly  express  their  agreement,  with  Rammohun 
Roy,  in  reprobating  the  custom,  which  is  now  well  known  to  be  not 
commanded  by  any  of  the  Hindoo  sacred  books,  though  some  of 
them  speak  of  it  as  a  meritorious  sacrifice.  A  similar  opinion  to 
that  of  Dr.  Marshman  I  have  heard  expressed  by  the  senior 
judge  of  the  Sudder  Dewannee  Adawlut.  Others,  however,  of 
the  members  of  the  Government  think  differently.  They  con- 
ceive that  the  likeliest  method  to  make  the  custom  more  popular 
than  it  is  would  be  to  forbid  and  make  it  a  point  of  honour  with 
the  natives  ;  that  at  present  no  woman  is  supposed  to  be  burnt 
without  her  own  wish  certified  to  the  magistrate  ;  that  there  are 
other  and  less  public  ways  to  die  (on  that  account  more  liable  to 
abuse  than  the  suttees)  which  might  be  resorted  to  if  this  were 
forbidden  ;  and  that  if  we  desire  to  convert  the  Hindoos,  we 
should  above  all  things  be  careful  to  keep  Government  entirely 
out  of  sight  in  all  the  means  which  we  employ,  and  to  be  even,  if 
possible,  over-scrupulous  in  not  meddling  with,  or  impeding  those 
customs  which,  however  horrid,  are  become  sacred  in  their  estima- 
tion, and  are  only  to  be  destroyed  by  convincing  and  changing 
the  popular  mind.  When  Christian  schools  have  become  univer- 
sal the  suttee  will  fall  of  itself  But  to  forbid  it  by  any  legislative 
enactment  would,  in  their  opinion,  only  give  currency  to  the 
notion  that  we  mean  to  impose  Christianity  on  them  by  force, 
and  retard  its  progress  to  an  almost  indefinite  period." 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL  i6i 


"  2ist  Janitary  1824. 

"...  I  went  this  day  to  Calcutta  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society,  and  returned,  after  an  early  dinner, 
with  Archdeacon  Corrie." 

"  2nd  Fibniaiy  1824. 
"  I  went  to  Calcutta  for  a  confirmation,  which  I  held  the  next 
day  in  the  cathedral  ;  the  number  of  persons  who  attended  were 
236 — a  good  many  more  than  were  expected,  as  barely  two 
years  have  elapsed  since  the  last  performance  of  the  ceremony  by 
Bishop  Middleton.  Most  of  them  were  half-castes  ;  but  there 
were,  however,  several  officers,  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  European 
soldiers,  and  three  grown-up  women  of  the  upper  ranks.  They 
were  apparently  very  seriously  impressed  with  the  ceremony, 
which  to  me,  I  will  own,  was  almost  overpowering.  God  Almighty 
grant  his  indulgence  to  me,  and  his  blessing  on  those  for  whom  I 
then  prayed,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake  ! " 

"  21^/  Jj^ril  1824. 
"  I  entered  into  my  forty-second  year.  God  grant  that  my 
future  years  may  be  as  happy,  if  He  sees  good  ;  and  better,  far 
better  spent  than  those  which  are  gone  by  !  This  day  I  christened 
my  dear  little  Harriet.  God  bless  and  prosper  her  with  all 
earthly  and  heavenly  blessings  !  We  had  afterwards  a  great 
dinner  and  evening  party,  at  which  were  present  the  Governor 
and  Lady  Amherst,  and  nearly  all  our  acquaintance  in  Calcutta. 
To  the  latter  I  also  asked  several  of  the  wealthy  natives,  who 
were  much  pleased  with  the  attention,  being,  in  fact,  one  which  no 
European  of  high  station  in  Calcutta  had  previously  paid  to  any 
of  them.  Hurree  Mohun  Thakoor  observing  '  what  an  increased 
interest  the  presence  of  females  gave  to  our  parties,'  I  reminded 
him  that  the  introduction  of  women  into  society  was  an  ancient 
Hindoo  custom,  and  only  discontinued  in  consequence  of  the 
Musalman  conquest.  He  assented  with  a  laugh,  adding,  how- 
ever, '  It  is  too  late  for  us  to  go  back  to  the  old  custom  now.' 
Rhadakant  Deb,  who  overheard  us,  observed  more  seriously,  '  It 
is  very  true  that  we  did  not  use  to  shut  up  our  women  till  the 
times  of  the  Musalmans.  But  before  we  could  give  them  the 
same  liberty  as  the  Europeans  they  must  be  better  educated.'  I 
introduced  these  Baboos  to  the  Chief  Justice,  which  pleased  them 
much,  though  perhaps  they  were  still  better  pleased  with  my  wife 
herself  presenting  them  pawn,  rosewater,  and  attar  of  roses 
before  they  went,  after  the  native  custom." 

M 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"24//!  April  1824. 
"  The  cholera  morbus  is  making  great  ravages  among  the 
natives.  Few  Europeans  have  yet  died  of  it,  but  to  all  it  is 
sufficiently  near  to  remind  us  of  our  utter  dependence  on  God's 
mercy,  and  how  near  we  are  in  the  midst  of  life  to  death  1  Surely 
there  is  no  country  in  the  world  where  this  recollection  ought  to 
be  more  perpetually  present  with  us  than  India.  All  persons 
experienced  in  this  climate  deny  that  any  of  the  country  fevers 
are  contagious.  A  verj'  blessed  circumstance,  whatever  may  be 
its  immediate  cause." 

"  ii\th  June  1824. 

"  I  have  had  a  very  interesting  and  awful  ceremony  to  perform 
in  the  ordination  of  Christian  David,  a  native  of  Malabar,  and 
pupil  of  Schwartz,  who  had  been  for  many  years  a  catechist  in 
the  employ  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  in 
Ceylon,  and  now  came  to  me,  recommended  by  Archdeacon 
Twistleton,  and  qualified  with  the  title  of  a  colonial  chaplaincy  by 
Sir  Edward  Barnes,  the  Governor  of  the  island.  David  passed 
an  exceeding  good  examination,  and  gave  much  satisfaction  to 
everybody  by  his  modesty,  good  sense,  and  good  manners.  He 
was  ordained  deacon  on  Holy  Thursday,  on  which  day  also  I 
held  my  visitation,  and  had  a  good  attendance  of  clergy,  and  a 
numerous  audience,  notwithstanding  the  early  hour  at  which  it 
was  celebrated.  On  Trinity  Sunday  I  had  the  satisfaction  (though 
by  me  it  was  felt  at  the  same  time,  in  some  degree,  a  terrible 
responsibility)  of  ordaining  him  priest.  God  grant  that  his 
ministration  may  be  blessed  to  his  own  salvation,  and  that  of 
many  others  I  He  was  lodged  during  his  residence  in  Bengal  in 
the  Bishop's  College,  and  received  much  attention  and  kindness 
from  Lady  Amherst  and  many  others.  He  preached  on  Thursday 
evening  at  the  Old  Church,  and  it  was  proposed  to  publish  his 
sermon  ;  but  this  I  thought  it  best  to  discourage." 

Heber's  letters  to  Miss  Dod  fortunately  continued  to  be 
frequent,  and  these  enable  us  to  follow  every  step  of  his 
career  with  even  greater  interest  than  that  called  forth  by  his 
Journal : — 

"Calcutta,  15//;  December  1823. 
"  My  last  letter,  my  dear  Charlotte,  though  begun  at  a  rather 
early  period  of  our  voyage,  yet  as  I  had  no  means  of  sending  it 
before  we  reached  India,  will  have  told  you  of  our  safe  arrival, 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL  163 


and  our  rapid  and  prosperous  voyage.  Emily  and  I  have  bince 
continued  to  enjoy  perfect  health,  but  our  poor,  dear  little  girl, 
who  landed  from  the  Grcnville  the  picture  of  health  and  happiness, 
and  who  remained  well  and  in  good  spirits  during  the  first  month, 
now  that  the  cool  and  pleasant  season  has  commenced  from 
which  Europeans  in  general  derive  unmixed  benefit,  has  been 
struggling  for  the  last  three  weeks  or  more  with  a  tedious  low 
fever  and  a  weakness  of  digestion  which  have  sometimes  made 
us  both  very,  very  uneasy.  We  hope  she  is  better,  but  she 
recovers  very  slowly,  and  our  best  hope  seems  to  be  in  a  little 
excursion  to  the  coast  in  a  pilot  vessel,  in  which  her  mother  is 
to  accompany  her.  We  have  no  reason  to  think  the  illness 
occasioned  by  climate,  and  she  derived  so  much  benefit  from  her 
voyage  in  the  Gretivillc,  that  another  cruise,  though  a  short  one, 
we  trust  may  restore  her.  On  this,  next  to  Providence,  we  are 
taught  to  place  confidence.  1  have  been  very  busy ;  busier, 
indeed,  than  I  ever  was  before,  except  during  the  Oxford  election, 
and  this  constant  occupation  has  kept  my  spirits  from  flagging. 
But  to  my  poor  wife  this  is  a  heavy  trial  ;  were  this  otherwise  we 
should  both  enjoy  our  present  situation.  I  have  a  field  of  useful- 
ness before  me  so  vast  that  my  only  fear  is  lest  I  should  lose  my 
way  in  it. 

"  The  country,  the  society,  and,  at  this  season,  the  climate  are 
all  very  agreeable,  and  there  are  several  amiable  and  excellent 
people  here,  who  have  shown  us  much  and  cordial  kindness,  and 
whose  friendship  would,  in  any  country,  be  a  valuable  privilege. 
Of  the  country  we  have  as  yet  seen  little,  except  in  our  voyage 
up  the  river  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Calcutta.  But  all  Bengal  is 
described  to  us  as  like  those  parts  which  we  have  seen — a 
vast  alluvial  plain,  intersected  by  the  innumerable  arms  of  the 
Ganges,  overflowed  once  a  year,  but  now  covered  with  rice-fields, 
divided  by  groves  of  tall  fruit-trees,  with  villages  under  their 
shelter,  swarming  with  a  population  beyond  anything  which 
Europe  can  show  and  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  China. 
Calcutta  when  seen  from  the  south,  on  which  side  it  is  built 
round  two  sides  of  a  great  open  plain,  with  the  Ganges  on  the 
west  and  Fort  William  standing  in  the  centre,  is  a  very  noble 
city,  with  tall  and  stately  houses,  ornamented  with  Grecian  pillars, 
and  each,  for  the  most  part,  surrounded  by  a  little  apology  for  a 
garden.  The  churches  are  not  large,  but  very  neat  and  even 
elegant  buildings,  and  the  Government  House  is,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  a  more  showy  palace  than  London  has  to  produce.  These 
are,  however,  the  front  lines  ;  behind  them  ranges  the  native  town, 


BISHOP  HEBER 


deep,  black,  and  dingy,  with  narrow  crooked  streets,  huts  of 
earth  baked  in  the  sun  or  of  twisted  bamboo,  interspersed  here 
and  there  with  ruinous  brick  bazaars,  pools  of  dirty  water,  coco- 
trees,  and  little  gardens,  and  a  few  very  large,  very  fine,  and 
generally  very  dirty  houses  of  Grecian  architecture,  the  residences 
of  wealthy  natives.  There  are  some  mosques  of  pretty  archi- 
tecture, very  neatly  kept,  and  some  pagodas,  mostly  ruinous  and 
decayed,  the  religion  of  the  people  being  most  conspicuous  in 
their  worship  of  the  Ganges,  and  in  some  ugly  painted  wooden  or 
plaister  idols,  with  all  manner  of  heads  and  hands,  which  are  set  up 
in  different  parts  of  the  city. 

"  Fill  up  this  outline  with  a  crowd  of  people  in  the  streets 
beyond  anything  to  be  seen  even  in  London,  some  dressed  in 
tawdry  silks  and  brocades,  more  in  white  cotton  garments ;  and 
most  of  all  black  and  naked,  except  a  scanty  covering  round 
the  waist  ;  hideous  figures  of  religious  mendicants  with  no 
clothing  but  their  long  hair  and  beards  in  elf  locks,  their  faces 
painted  white  or  yellow,  their  beads  in  one  ghastly  lean  hand, 
and  the  other  stretched  out  like  a  bird's  claw  to  receive  dona- 
tions ;  marriage  processions,  with  the  bride  in  a  covered  chair, 
the  bridegroom  on  horseback,  and  so  swathed  round  with  gar- 
lands as  hardly  to  be  seen  ;  tradesmen  sitting  on  the  ground  in 
the  midst  of  their  different  commodities,  and  old  men,  lookers-on, 
perched  naked  as  monkeys,  smoking  on  the  flat  roofs  of  the 
houses  ;  carts  drawn  by  oxen,  and  driven  by  wild -looking  men 
with  thick  sticks,  so  unmercifully  used  as  perfectly  to  undeceive  all 
our  notions  of  Brahminical  humanity;  attendants  with  silver  maces 
peeping  through  the  crowd  before  the  carriage  of  some  great  man 
or  other  ;  no  woman  seen  except  of  the  lowest  class,  yet  even 
these  with  heavy  silver  ornaments  on  their  dusky  arms  and 
ankles  ;  while  coaches,  covered  up  close  with  red  cloth,  are  seen 
conveying  the  inmates  of  the  neighbouring  seraglios  to  take  what 
is  called  '  the  air '  ;  a  constant  creaking  of  cart  wheels,  which  are 
never  greased  in  India ;  a  constant  clamour  of  voices  and  an 
almost  constant  thumping  and  jingling  of  drums,  cymbals,  etc.,  in 
honour  of  some  one  or  other  of  their  deities  ;  and  add  to  all  a 
villainous  smell  of  garlic,  rancid  coconut  oil,  sour  butter,  and 
stagnant  ditches,  and  you  will  understand  the  sights,  sounds,  and 
smells  of  what  is  called  '  the  Black  Town '  of  Calcutta.  The 
singularity  of  this  spectacle  is  best  and  least  offensively  enjoyed 
on  a  noble  quay  which  Lord  Hastings  built  along  the  shore  of 
the  river,  where  the  vessels  of  all  forms  and  sizes — Arab,  Indian, 
Malay,  American,  English, — the  crowds  of  Brahmins  and  other 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL  165 


Hindoos  washing  and  saying  their  prayers,  the  hghted  tapers, 
which  toward  simset  they  throw  in,  and  the  broad,  bright  stream, 
which  sweeps  them  by,  guiltless  of  their  impiety  and  unconscious 
of  their  homage,  afford  a  scene  such  as  no  European  and  few 
Asiatic  cities  can  at  all  parallel  in  interest  and  singularity. 

"  Of  European  towns  I  am  most  reminded  of  Moscow.  The  size 
of  the  houses,  whicli  arc  frci|uently  occupied  by  more  than  a  single 
family,  their  Grecian  architecture,  their  number  of  servants,  the 
Eastern  dresses,  and  the  hospitality  of  the  place,  which,  though 
much  diminished,  is  still  profuse  and  incessant,  continually  remind 
me  of  what  I  saw  in  a  very  different  climate  ;  and,  if  you  recollect 
the  Russian  prints  which  I  had  at  Hodnet,  you  will  haxe  no  bad 
idea  of  our  China  bazaar  and  our  Cossitollah.  Great  state  of  a 
certain  kind  is  still  kept  up,  not  only  by  the  Governor-General, 
who  has  most  of  the  usual  appendages  of  a  sovereign,  and  whose 
bodyguards,  gold  sticks,  spearmen,  peacocks'  plumes,  state 
carriage,  state  barge,  and  elephants  are  all  remarkably  contrasted 
with  the  simplicity  and  quiet  good -nature  of  their  present 
possessors,  but  also  by  all  the  principal  persons  in  authority. 
You  would  laugh  to  see  me  carried  by  four  men  in  a  palankin, 
two  more  following  as  a  relay,  two  silver  maces  carried 
before  me,  and  another  man  with  a  huge  painted  umbrella 
at  my  side  ;  or  to  see  Emily  returning  from  a  party  with  the 
aforesaid  silver  maces,  or  sometimes  four  of  them,  a  groom  at 
each  horse's  head,  and  four  men  running  before  with  glass 
lanthorns.  Yet  our  establishment  is  as  modest  and  humble  as 
the  habits  of  the  place  will  allow,  and  though  we  have  still  more 
than  forty  servants,  we  have  got  rid  of  many  who  were  at  first 
represented  as  indispensable.  Even  our  poor  little  girl  had  at 
first  three  men  assigned  to  attend  her,  one  to  carry  her  and  make 
her  bed,  one  to  wait  on  her  at  table,  and  a  third  to  carry  her 
umbrella  and  run  her  errands,  an  arrangement  which  she  was  so 
far  from  relishing  that  she  ran  away  from  them  as  fast  as  she 
could,  and  as  they  officiously  stooped  to  pick  up  her  playthings, 
called  out,  '  Don't  tease  little  Emmy  ! '  You  may  believe  that  they 
were  not  long  allowed  to  tease  her.  After  all,  this  state  has 
nothing  very  dazzling  in  it.  A  crowd  of  half-naked  followers  is 
no  splendid  show,  and  the  horses,  the  equipages,  the  furniture 
of  Calcutta  are  all  as  far  from  magnificent  as  any  that  I  am 
acquainted  with.  Our  way  of  life  in  other  respects  is  sensible 
and  well  suited  to  the  climate.  The  general  custom  is  to  rise  at 
five  in  the  morning,  and  to  take  exercise  on  horseback  till  about 
eight,  then  follows  a  cold  bath,  then  prayers  and  breakfast. 


1 66 


BISHOP  HEBER 


This  last  is  a  sort  of  public  meal,  when  my  clergy  and  other 
friends  drop  in,  after  which  I  am  generally  engaged  in  business 
till  three.  We  then  dine  if  we  are  alone,  or,  if  engaged,  Emily 
eats  her  luncheon.  We  then  go  out  again  from  four  till  six, 
when  the  sun  sets  and  the  darkness  drives  us  home  to  dress  for 
dinner,  or  to  pass  a  tranquil  evening.  Our  rooms  are  large  and 
lofty,  with  very  little  furniture  ;  the  beds  have  no  drapery  but  a 
musquito  net,  and  though  now  the  climate  is  so  cool  as  even  to 
require  a  blanket,  nobody  thinks  of  shutting  windows. 

"  Where  do  we  ride  ?  you  ask.  We  have  excellent  turf  for 
galloping,  and  excellent  roads  for  driving  on  the  great  plain  of 
which  I  have  spoken  ;  but  there  is  no  necessity  for  confining 
ourselves  to  it.  The  roads  round  Calcutta,  as  soon  as  its  bound- 
ary is  passed,  wind  through  beautiful  villages,  overhung  with  the 
finest  and  most  picturesque  foliage  the  world  can  show  of  the 
banyan,  the  palm,  the  tamarind  (more  beautiful,  perhaps,  than  all), 
and  the  bamboo.  Sometimes  the  glade  opens  to  plains  covered 
at  this  time  with  the  rice  harvest,  or  to  a  sight  of  the  broad,  bright 
river,  with  its  ships  and  its  woody  shores.  Sometimes  it  contracts 
into  little  winding  tracts,  through  fruit-trees,  gardens,  and  cottages, 
the  gardens  fenced  in  with  hedges  of  aloe  and  pineapple,  the 
cottages  neater  than  those  of  Calcutta,  and  mostly  of  mats  and 
white  wickerwork,  with  thatched  roofs  and  cane  verandahs,  with 
gourds  trailing  over  their  roofs,  and  the  broad,  tall  plantains 
clustering  round  them. 

"  Some,  too,  there  are  a  little  larger  than  the  rest,  which  are 
more  interesting  than  all,  being  schools  on  Bell's  system,  established 
within  these  last  two  years  by  the  Church  Missionary-  Society  and 
the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  where  the  natives 
send  their  children,  not  only  readily,  but  thankfully,  to  be  taught 
reading,  etc.,  and  English,  without  making  the  least  objection  to 
their  learning  at  the  same  time  a  selection  of  Scripture  lessons 
and  some  parts  of  the  Catechism.  You  may  guess,  my  dear 
Charlotte,  the  feelings  with  which  1  have  entered  these  huts,  on 
seeing  ninety  or  a  hundred  poor  little  naked  urchins  seated  on  the 
ground  like  tadpoles,  writing  their  letters  in  the  sand,  or  their 
copies  on  banana  leaves,  one  after  another  stepping  out  to  read, 
either  in  English  or  Bengalee,  the  history  of  Joseph  or  the  Good 
Samaritan — proud  of  showing  their  knowledge  to  the  '  Lord  Padre 
Sahib  '  (as  they  call  me,  by  a  strange  mixture  of  English,  Portuguese, 
and  Indian  titles)  ;  and  many  of  them  able  to  render  as  good  an 
account  of  their  studies  as  your  own  pupils  at  Malpas.  I  have 
been  no  less  gratified  at  seeing  the  confidence  and  respect 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL 


evidently  shown  by  the  elder  villagers  towards  the  clergy  who 
superintend  these  schools.  I  saw  yesterday  a  man  running  to  a 
German  missionary  to  beg  him  to  stay  and  look  at  his  little  boy's 
copy  ;  and  Mr.  Hawtayne,  the  secretary  to  the  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge,  seems  as  well  known  and  as  well  received 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  schools  as  an  English  clergyman  in 
his  parish  ;  and  this  in  a  country  where,  three  years  ago,  the 
children  used  to  scream  and  hide  themselves  when  a  white  man 
came  into  the  village  !  The  way  in  which  all  has  been  done  is 
by  appealing  to  the  common  sense  and  worldly  interest  of  their 
parents.  '  We  will  teach  your  children,'  we  say,  '  many  curious 
and  useful  things  ;  we  will  give  them  nothing  which  can  make 
them  lose  caste  ;  we  will  not  baptize  them,  or  press  them  to 
become  Christians,  but  will  teach  them  our  sacred  books,  that  they 
may  know  what  we  believe  and  what  we  ought  to  practise.  They 
will  then  be  able  at  least  to  judge  of  our  religion  for  themselves  ; 
and  if,  when  they  grow  up,  they  choose  it,  it  is  their  affair,  not 
yours.'  This,  with  a  few  judicious  presents  of  books,  clothing, 
and  ornaments,  together  with  the  obvious  advantages  of  education, 
and  a  power  of  speaking  English,  has  made  all  easy.  The 
common  people  are  so  well  pleased  that  the  Brahmins  are  not 
heard  against  the  system  ;  nay,  the  Brahmins  themselves,  many 
of  them,  express  great  wonder  and  delight  at  the  beautiful  things 
contained  in  the  gospels,  and  say  they  like  the  English  the  better 
now  they  know  they  too  really  have  a  religion  and  a  Shaster. 

"  Nor  is  this  the  only  wonder.  Two  years  ago  no  woman  in 
India  could  either  read  or  write  ;  now,  in  Calcutta  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood, there  are  twenty-three  female  schools  (the  boys'  schools 
which  I  have  mentioned  are  nine  Church  Missionary  and  eleven 
Christian  Knowledge),  carried  on  by  a  Mrs.  Wilson,  the  wife  of  a 
missionary,  who  visits  them  all  by  turns,  two  or  three  in  a  day, 
and  finds  from  thirty  to  fifty  little  girls  in  each  school,  some  of 
whom  have  actually  since  taught  their  mothers  to  read  and  write 
also.  We  had  a  grand  exhibition  of  these  pupils,  at  which  I 
persuaded  Lady  Amherst  to  be  present,  whose  example  was 
followed  by  half  the  ladies  of  Calcutta.  Nothing  could  be  prettier 
than  to  see  the  little  slim  black  figures  come  forward,  with  their 
flowing  muslin  veils  over  one  shoulder,  and  their  wrists,  fore- 
heads, and  ankles  loaded  with  what  little  finery  they  could  muster 
or  borrow,  to  show  their  banana  leaves  and  little  work-bags  to  the 
'  Burra  Beebee  Sahib,'  the  '  Great  Lady.'  Nor  is  it  only  in  this 
neighbourhood  that  the  work  is  going  on.  Similar  exertions  are 
making  at  Bardwan,  about  i  50  miles  off ;  and,  in  general,  a  change 


i68 


BISHOP  HEBER 


appears  to  have  taken  place  in  the  native  mind,  of  which  the  oldest 
residents  in  India  were  the  slowest  to  believe  the  possibility. 

"  I  do  not  say  that  all  these  children  are  Christians  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, if  any  of  them  desired  to  be  baptized,  the  answer  would  prob- 
ably be  '  Wait  till  you  grow  up,  and  judge  for  yourselves  ;  or  first 
get  your  parents'  leave.'  Nay,  the  e.xperiment  is  as  yet  too  recent 
for  us  to  know  if  any  will  be  converted.  But  the  probability  is  that 
some  will,  in  after  life,  retain  the  impressions  now  given.  It  is 
not  very  likely  that  a  child  who  has  learned  the  Lord's  Prayer  (to 
which  the  Brahmins  do  not  object)  will,  when  he  grows  up,  adhere 
to  his  country's  form  of  repeating  '  Ram  !  Ram  !  Ram  1 '  fifty  or 
sixty  times  every  morning  ;  and  it  is  certain,  at  least,  that  if  the 
power  and  the  habit  of  reading  the  New  Testament  does  not 
make  them  Christians,  nothing  else  is  likely  to  do  so.  At  all 
events,  they  are  great  gainers,  and  the  morality  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  has  been  so  much  admired  by  their  pagan  countrymen 
that  one  of  the  richest  Hindoos  in  Calcutta,  himself  a  great  bigot 
to  the  worship  of  the  Ganges,  on  h&aring  the  girls  repeat  it  about 
a  year  ago,  bade  them  go  on  and  prosper  ;  that  if  '  they  acted  as 
they  had  learned,  his  own  wives  and  daughters  should  have  no 
handmaids  who  had  not  been  brought  up  at  the  English  schools.' 
This  man,  Rhadakant  Deb,  and  several  others,  were  again  at  the 
recent  meeting,  and  their  splendid  shawls,  turbands,  and  beards 
added  much  to  the  singularity  of  the  scene,  when  contrasted  with 
bonnets  and  artificial  flowers,  military  uniforms,  the  black  coats  of 
the  European  clergy,  and  the  shorn  heads,  white  mantles,  bare 
feet  and  arms  of  the  pundits  of  the  boys'  schools. 

"  Do  we  encounter  no  opposition  ?  Unfortunately  we  do.  An 
apostate  Brahmin,  Rammohun  Roy,  who  was  once  half-Christian, 
but  now  wants  to  found  a  sect  of  his  own,  has  written  some 
mischievous  pamphlets  against  us.  Several  of  the  old  English 
residents  are  angry  whenever  the  subject  is  mentioned  ;  and  the 
Dissenters,  though  pretending,  and  probably  desiring,  to  sene  the 
same  cause,  cannot  help  putting  down  their  schools  in  rivalry 
whenever  our  schools  are  fairly  established,  instead  of  looking  out 
new  fields  where  they  would  not  interfere,  and  do  more  harni  than 
good  by  the  bitter  and  vexatious  manner  in  which  they  have  in 
many  instances  attempted  to  preach  the  Gospel  ;  or  (what  they 
like  still  better)  insult  the  Church  of  England.  The  worst  of  all 
our  hindrances  would  be,  if  they  could,  the  Lancasterian  British 
and  Foreign  School  Society,  who  have  pledged  themselves  not  to 
teach  Christianity  in  Bengal,  and  therefore  have  excluded  the 
Scriptures  from  their  school-books.     Mrs.  Wilson,  when  Miss 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL 


169 


Cooke,  was  sent  out  by  them,  but  now  that  she  has  joined  the 
Church  of  England,  they  have  withdrawn  her  allowance,  and  she 
must  have  returned  to  Europe  had  it  not  been  for  the  help  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society.  But  our  greatest  obstacle  is  want  of 
money. 

"  We  could  establish  twice  our  present  number  ;  but  for  this 
we  must  look  to  England.  The  public  here  is  very  liberal,  but 
the  calls  on  charity  are  continual,  and  the  number  of  and  ;^io 
subscriptions  which  are  required  of  a  man  every  month  for  inun- 
dations, famines,  officers'  widows,  etc.,  are  such  as  surprise  an 
Englishman  on  his  first  arrival,  though  he  cannot  but  be  pleased 
with  the  spirit  which  they  evince. 

"We  are  still  spaciously,  but  not  very  comfortably,  lodged  in 
a  large  house  in  Fort  William,  originally  built  as  the  residence 
of  the  Governor-General,  but  never  occupied  by  him.  The  East 
India  Company  promised  me  a  residence,  but  forgot  to  send  out 
any  orders  to  that  effect,  and  I  owe  my  present  dwelling  to  the 
kindness  of  Lord  Amherst,  which,  as  well  as  that  of  Lady  A.,  has 
been  unremitting  to  us  all  three.  Lady  A.,  who  is  a  great  horse- 
woman, has  had  a  severe  fall,  but  her  son  told  me  to-day  that  no 
lasting  serious  consequences  are  apprehended.  I  should  heartily 
grieve  if  any  harm  befell  her.  Miss  A.  is  a  little  round-faced,  rosy 
girl,  who  sings  all  manner  of  German  and  Portuguese  songs, 
draws  prettily,  studies  Persian,  and,  without  being  like  her,  puts 
me  in  mind  of  Maria  Leycester.  Beauty  is  not  very  common 
here.  There  are,  indeed,  many  pretty  figures  and  good  counten- 
ances, but  the  colour  almost  always  fades  the  first  summer,  and, 
for  many  good  reasons,  rouge  does  not  answer  in  this  climate. 

"  Our  stay  in  Calcutta  must,  of  course,  depend  on  my  child's 
health  and  my  wife's  recovery.  If  all  goes  on  well,  my  present 
plan  is  to  set  out  with  tents  and  elephants  to  march  up  the  country 
in  February.  Two  months  will  bring  us  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Benares,  where  we  must  halt  for  the  hot  winds.  We  should  then 
go  by  water  to  Cawnpore,  and  again  by  land  to  Meerut.  The 
following  cold  season  will  be  spent  in  our  return  through  Luck- 
now,  Moorshedabad,  etc.  I  shall  then  have  seen  one-third  of  my 
immense  diocese  in  a  journey  of  2500  miles,  during  the  greater 
part  of  which  we  should  sojourn  like  the  ancient  patriarchs.  God 
grant  that,  like  them,  we  may  look  from  our  tabernacles  to  an 
eternal  city. 

"  Adieu,  dear  Charlotte. — Yours  most  faithfully, 

"  R.  Calcutta." 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"TiTAGHUR,  26///  February  1824. 
"  Such,^  my  dear  Charlotte,  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  appearance 
and  condition  of  some  forty  millions  of  peasantry  subject  to 
British  rule — very  poor,  as  their  appearance  sufficiently  indicates 
(at  least  in  those  points  wherein  an  Englishman  places  his  ideas 
of  comfort  and  prosperity),  yet  not  so  poor,  and  not  by  any  means 
so  rude  and  wild  as  their  scanty  dress  and  simple  habitations 
would  at  first  lead  an  Englishman  to  imagine.  The  silver  orna- 
ments which  the  young  woman  wears  on  her  ankles,  arms,  fore- 
head, and  in  her  nose,  joined  to  the  similar  decorations  on  her 
children's  arms,  would  more  than  buy  all  the  clothes  and  finery  of 
the  smartest  servant-girl  in  the  rows  of  Chester,  and  the  men  are  in 
all  probability  well  taught  in  reading  and  writing,  after  their  own 
manner,  while  the  little  boy,  perhaps,  is  one  of  my  scholars,  and 
could  cast  an  account  and  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  any  of 
your  clives  at  Malpas.  The  plant  which  overshadows  the  cow 
and  goat  is  a  bamboo  ;  the  tall  palm  in  the  distance  is  a  coco  ; 
that  which  hangs  over  the  old  mother  of  the  family,  a  plantain  ; 
and  the  creeper  on  the  thatched  cottage  a  beautiful  fast-growing 
gourd,  of  the  very  kind,  I  could  fancy,  which  obtained  so  fast  a 
hold  on  Jonah's  affections.  Their  style  of  carrying  the  child, 
astride  on  one  hip,  the  manner  in  which  the  water-pot  is  balanced, 
and  the  red  paint  (a  mark  of  caste)  on  the  foreheads  of  the  two 
men  are  all  (as  well  as  the  diminutive  size  and  high  hump  of  the 
cow)  what  we  usually  see  here  ;  and  though  the  group  itself  is 
from  fancy,  all  the  diiTerent  objects  are  as  faithful  representations 
of  nature  as  my  skill  enabled  me  to  make.  The  sketch  may  give 
you  some  little  idea  of  the  scenes  we  meet  with  in  our  morning 
rides. 

"  These,  though  the  weather  is  beginning  to  grow  somewhat  too 
warm,  are  still  very  refreshing  and  delightful,  and  we  enjoy  them 
the  more  in  our  present  situation,  having  removed,  during  the 
last  six  weeks,  from  Fort  William  (which  sadly  disagreed  with 
our  poor  little  Emily)  to  a  delightful  place  about  sixteen  miles 
from  Calcutta,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  which  a  kind  friend 
lent  us,  and  which  has  the  additional  advantage  of  adjoining, 
very  nearly,  the  country  residence  of  the  Amhersts  at  Barrack- 
pore.  Here  our  little  girl  has  recovered  all  her  health  and  roses 
(indeed,  a  greater  share  of  the  latter  than  she  ever  possessed  in 


'  The  letter  begins  with  the  reahstic  sketch,  but  in  water-colours,  of  a 
Bengali  village,  on  the  opposite  page. 


172 


BISHOP  HEBER 


England)  ;  here  Emily  too,  as  you  may  possibly  have  already 
heard,  has  presented  me  with  another  pretty  little  fair  girl,  whom,  to 
her  great  joy,  she  is  able  to  nurse  herself ;  here  she  has  recovered 
after  her  confinement  with  a  rapidity,  of  which,  in  a  cold  climate, 
and  where  the  outward  air  must  be  excluded,  we  can  have  little 
idea  ;  and  here  we  might  be  as  happy  as  we  can  expect  to  be  any- 
where out  of  England,  and  so  far  removed  from  so  many  whom 
we  love  dearly.  But,  alas  !  the  house  is  not  ours,  and  we  must 
soon  leave  it  to  take  up,  in  all  probability,  our  abode  again  for 
some  months  amid  the  heat,  dust,  and  finery  of  the  town,  though 
not  again  in  the  unhealthy  Fort. 

"  When  I  last  wrote  I  gave  you  a  sketch  of  the  journey  which 
we  then  hoped  to  begin  before  the  middle  of  the  present  month. 
Emily  soon  found,  however,  that  there  was  no  likelihood  of  her 
being  able  to  travel  so  soon  ;  and  I  myself  found  so  much  work 
to  do  in  Calcutta  and  the  neighbourhood  that  it  was  hardly  con- 
sistent with  duty  to  leave  it  before  the  rains.  Accordingly,  on 
Whit  Monday  next,  and  as  soon  as  the  Ganges  begins  to  show, 
by  a  fuller  stream  and  more  turbid  waters,  that  the  snows  have 
begun  to  melt  in  the  Himalaya  Mountains,  and  while  only  the 
few  first  showers  are  felt  in  Bengal,  we  hope,  please  God,  to 
embark  in  boats  for  a  three  months'  voyage  to  Cawnpore,  visiting 
the  different  stations  on  the  banks  as  we  proceed.  At  Cawnpore, 
as  soon  as  the  country  is  dry  enough  to  tra\el,  we  shall  take  to 
our  tents  and  little  cara\'an,  and  commence  our  land  journey  by 
pretty  nearly  the  same  route  which  1  mentioned  to  you  in 
December.  Our  lives  have  for  the  last  six  weeks  been  passed  in 
great  general  retirement.  Emily,  of  course,  has  not  gone  out, 
and  I  have  gone  out  \ery  little  into  general  society.  The 
Amhersts  have  continued  to  be  the  kindest  of  all  possible  neigh- 
bours, but  they  have  themselves  been  in  anxiety  about  the  health 
of  Miss  Amherst,  who  has  been  severely  ill,  and  my  time  has  been 
much,  I  may  say  entirely,  occupied  in  the  business  of  my  diocese, 
and  in  the  continual  journeys  to  Calcutta,  which  its  discharge  has 
made  necessarj'. 

"  The  report  is  now  that  the  Burmans,  who  were  going  to  war 
with  us,  have  again  drawn  in  their  horns,  at  which  I  sincerely 
rejoice,  more  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  bloodshed  than  from  any 
doubt  as  to  the  result  of  the  quarrel.  I  am,  however,  still  more 
immediately  interested  in  the  progress  of  the  native  schools,  of 
which  I  sent  you  a  description,  which  are  going  on  well,  and  of 
which  the  female  department  is  about  to  be  put  under  a  new- 
system.     It  was  found,  by  accident,  that  several  among  the 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  F.ENGAL 


173 


Hindoos  objected  to  men,  and  particularly  missionaries,  at  all 
interfering  in  the  girls'  school,  or  even  that  the  school  should  be 
in  the  same  range  of  building  where  men  resided.  We  are, 
therefore,  going  to  build  a  separate  house  for  schoolroom  and 
Mrs.  Wilson's  private  room,  where  no  male  creature  need  go 
except  by  special  invitation,  and  which,  together  with  all  the 
female  schools  established,  or  to  be  established  in  India,  is  to  be 
under  the  management  of  a  committee  of  ladies.  Lady  Amherst 
has  undertaken  the  office  of  Patroness  and  President,  and  two  or 
three  others  of  the  great  folk  of  Calcutta  have  promised  to  join 
Emily  as  a  committee.  Other  recruits  will  then,  I  have  no 
doubt,  be  easily  obtained,  and  the  thing  will  go  on  most  prosper- 
ously if  wc  can  only  get  funds  sufficient  for  the  demand  on  us.  1 
wish  we  could  obtain  help  from  England,  and  am  sure,  if  any 
share  were  allotted  to  us  of  the  subscriptions  raised  for  home  pur- 
poses, it  would  not  be  ill  bestowed  or  ill  expended.  But,  alas  ! 
there  is,  I  fear,  too  much  to  be  done  on  your  side  the  water  to 
give  these  poor  little  heathen  much  chance  of  partaking  in  such 
overflowings. 

"  Meantime,  I  am  not  an  idle  solicitor  here,  but  so  much 
and  so  many  things  are  to  be  done  that  I  am  often  completely 
tired  out  before  the  day  is  ended,  and  yet  have  to  regret  many 
omissions.  One  considerable  source  of  labour  has  been  the 
number  of  sermons  which  I  have  had  to  compose.  All  mine  are 
packed  up  with  my  books,  and  as  the  despatches  are  not  yet 
arrived  which  are  to  assign  me  a  house,  I  have  not  the  means  of 
unpacking  them.  And  there  is  so  grievous  a  want  of  chaplains 
on  the  Bengal  establishment,  that  both  the  Archdeacon  and 
myself  are  obliged  to  preach  quite  as  often,  sometimes  oftener  in 
the  Sunday  than  I  ever  did  at  Hodnet.  This,  with  meetings  of 
Bible  Societies,  Church  Missions,  Christian  Knowledge,  etc.,  the 
accounts  of  the  new  College,  and  the  daily  and  increasing  corre- 
spondence which  I  have  to  carry  on  with  Madras,  Bombay,  Ceylon 
and  the  Government  here,  leaves  me  far  less  time  than  I  had 
hoped  to  enjoy  for  the  study  of  the  Oriental  languages,  and  no 
time  at  all,  or  next  to  none,  for  general  and  amusing  reading. 

"  I  have  enjoyed  good  health,  however,  and  have  no  reason  to 
apprehend  that  the  climate  will  be  unfriendly  to  me,  though,  by  the 
express  injunctions  of  my  medical  friends,  I  am  now  living  better 
in  point  both  of  wine  and  animal  food  than  I  at  first  supposed  to 
be  desirable  in  a  hot  climate.  Notwithstanding,  indeed,  the 
quantity  of  in-doors  work  which  1  have  to  go  through,  I  manage 
between  morning  and  evening  to  take  a  good  deal  of  exercise, 


74 


BISHOP  HEBER 


and  even  during  those  hours  when  we  are  necessarily  inactive, 
the  free  current  of  air  and  the  ever-open  doors  and  windows  of 
our  lofty  and  almost  unfurnished  rooms  may  perhaps  be  quite 
as  favourable  to  animal  existence  as  the  little  close  study  where 
I  used  to  pass  so  much  of  my  time.  The  country  is  now  splen- 
didly beautiful.  The  tall  timber-trees  which  delighted  us  with 
their  shade  and  \erdure  when  we  landed  are  now,  many  of  them, 
covered  with  splendid  flowers,  literally  hot-house  flowering  shrubs, 
30  or  40  feet  high,  and  the  fragrance  of  a  drive  through  the 
park  at  Barrackpore  is  answerable  to  the  dimensions  of  this 
Brobdingnag  parterre.  Some  of  the  trees,  and  those  large  ones 
too,  even  lose  their  leaves  entirely  at  this  season,  throwing  out 
large  crimson  and  yellow  flowers  in  their  place.  A  show  of 
fruit  is,  they  tell  us,  to  succeed  this  profusion  of  bloom  ;  but  of 
the  Indian  fruits  I  have  tasted  few,  except  oranges,  which  I  liked, 
and  of  those  which  I  have  not  yet  seen,  except  the  mango,  the 
account  given  us  is  not  very  promising.  The  sugar-canes  are 
both  beautiful  and,  when  chewed,  cool  and  refreshing,  with  a 
slightly  acid  taste,  which  is  agreeable  on  a  hot  day.  The  sugar 
prepared  from  them  is  verj'  disagreeable  to  me.  It  is  in  the 
form  of  sugar-candy,  the  crystals  formed  round  threads  of  coarse 
cotton,  and  often  with  so  much  chaff,  straw,  dead  leaves,  etc., 
intermingled,  that  one's  tea  assumes  the  appearance  of  having 
received  the  bottom  of  an  old  stocking  and  the  sweepings  of  a 
farmyard.  On  the  whole,  however,  though  the  luxuries  of  the  East 
are  certainly  over-rated,  we  have  many  comforts  for  which  we  may 
well  be  thankful,  nor  can  I  consider  India  as  a  disagreeable  place 
of  residence. 

"  Many  thanks  for  your  two  interesting  and  kind  letters, 
and  more  particularly  for  the  account  of  Edge  Bow -meeting. 
My  poor  song  was,  indeed,  highly  honoured.  But  why  have  you 
not  sent  me  yours  ?  What  could  induce  our  friend  Ofifley  Crewe 
to  talk  of  my  sea-sukncss  ?  I  never  felt  any  during  the  whole 
voyage.  Pray  tell  any  members  of  the  Acton  family  whom  you 
may  meet,  with  our  kind  regards,  that  Major,  now  '  Lt.-Colonel ' 
Cunliffe  is  extremely  well,  and  shows  no  sign  whatever  of  having 
suffered  from  his  long  residence  in  India.  Without  being  pre- 
cisely like  any  of  his  family,  he  put  us  both  in  mind  of  them, 
both  in  person,  voice,  and  manner.  He  is  very  good-natured, 
well  informed,  and  agreeable,  and  as  popular  in  India  as  his  rela- 
tives are  in  Wales  and  Cheshire.  It  is  very  pleasant  to  us  to 
talk  with  him  about  scenes  which  he  scarcely  remembers,  but  is 
still  interested  about,  and  which  we — when  shall  we  forget  them  ? 


76 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  I  told  you  you  would  laugh  if  you  saw  me  in  my  palankeen. 
I  now  give  you  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  ^  as  I  went  the  other 
day  in  state  to  the  'Durbar'  or  Asiatic  Levee  of  the  Governor- 
General.  Pray  give  the  kind  regards  both  of  Emily  and  me 
to  your  dear,  kind  family  circle  at  Edge,  to  Conny  and  to  Ned 
Davenport,  to  whom  I  wrote  some  time  back,  and  mean  to  write 
again.  I  have  had  a  long  and  interesting  letter  from  Pearson, 
who  speaks  of  a  delightful  day  which  he  spent  at  Edge.  In 
general,  my  friends  have  been  very  bad  correspondents.  Adieu, 
dearest  Charlotte.  Believe  me  ever  your  faithful  and  affectionate 
friend,  R.  CALCUTTA." 

"  I  began  my  letter  with  a  sketch  of  the  peasantry  of  India. 
I  conclude  it  with  one  of  a  part  of  the  park  at  Barrackpore,  with 
Lady  Amherst  in  her  morning's  airing.  The  large  tree  in  the 
centre  is  a  peepul,  sacred  to  Siva,  and  with  an  evil  spirit  (as  the 
Hindoos  believe)  dwelling  under  every  leaf  In  the  distance, 
between  that  and  the  bamboo,  is  a  banian.  In  the  foreground  an 
aloe,  and  over  the  elephant  the  cotton  tree,  one  of  those  which  at 
a  certain  season  exchanges  its  leaves  for  roses.  The  man  who 
walks  at  the  head  of  the  elephant  is  employed  in  giving  him 
advice,  such  as  'Step  out,'  'Take  care,'  'There's  a  stone,'  'A  slippery 
place,'  '  Bravo,  my  fine  fellow,'  '  Remember  who  it  is  you  are 
carrying,'  etc.,  which  nonsense  they  fancy  the  animal  understands 
and  profits  by. 

"  Did  I  tell  you  in  my  last  letter  that  the  other  day  I  met  with 
one  of  my  hymns  ('  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains')  translated 
into  Bengali  ?     1  must  bind  it  up  with  the  Welsh  Palestine." 

''^Ih  April  1S24. 

"  My  dearest  Charlotte — This  is  a  letter  which  I  send  off 
at  haphazard,  in  much  hurry,  that  it  may  be  in  time  for  a  ship  at 
Saugur.  It  will  be  what  my  dear  sister  calls  a  '  real  letter,' 
though  since  I  left  England  I  have  not,  to  my  knowledge,  dis- 
guised my  feelings  in  any  shape.  I  cannot,  however,  bear  to 
allow  the  anniversary  of  our  last  meeting  to  pass  away  without 
telling  her  that  I  am  well,  that  I  am  busy,  I  hope  useful,  and  as 
happy  as  a  man  can  be  in  banishment  from  such  friends  as  mine, 
and  that  I  am  in  heart  and  brotherly  love  for  her  all  which  I  was 
when  we  took  leave  twelve  months  ago  at  Iscoyd.    Alas  !  alas  ! 


In  a  sepia  sketch. 


N 


178 


BISHOP  HEBER 


how  are  we  now  divided  !  Yet  I  do  not  repent  of  having  left 
England.  I  feel  I  should  have  repented  if  I  had  stayed,  and  I 
feel  that  I  have  abundant  reason  for  thankfulness  to  Providence 
in  the  splendid  career  of  usefulness  which  lies  before  me,  and  in 
the  kind  friends  who  have  been  raised  up  for  me  in  a  strange 
land,  though  none  of  those  friends  can  be  to  me  like  those  I  have 
left  behind. 

"  I  have  been  unwell  during  a  considerable  part  of  this 
year.  It  began  by  a  fall  from  my  horse,  in  itself  of  little  conse- 
quence, but  the  cut  on  my  leg,  in  this  inflammatory  climate, 
was  followed  by  a  succession  of  boils,  a  very  common  disease 
here,  and  I  am  told  reckoned  rather  beneficial  than  otherwise 
to  the  general  health.  They  were,  however,  very  painful  and 
troublesome,  and  were,  in  my  case,  aggravated,  as  I  am  told,  by 
too  great  abstinence.  Certain  it  is  1  have  been  much  better  since 
I  have  eaten  meat  regularly  and  drunk  wine,  though  in  both  I 
am  still  more  moderate  than  most  of  my  neighbours.  This  is  all  in 
strict  confidence,  and  not  to  be  repeated.  I  am  very  anxious  my 
poor  mother  should  not  know  of  my  having  been  unwell.  From 
you  I  will  not  conceal  it,  and  I  know  you  will  believe  me  when  I 
say  that  I  am  now  almost  as  well  as  ever  I  was,  and  I  have 
every  reason  to  think  the  climate  will  agree  with  me.  I  wish  I 
could  be  equally  confident  respecting  my  poor  wife  and  children. 
The  baby  is,  however,  as  fine  and  fat  a  child  as  can  be,  and  little 
Emily,  though  thin  and  delicate,  is  very  much  better  than  she  has 
been.  My  poor  wife  is  by  no  means  well.  Yet  she  does  not  look 
ill.  She  takes  a  deal  of  riding  exercise,  and  perhaps  her  health  is 
more  affected  by  the  bustle  and  labour  which  she  has  undergone 
lately  in  changing  residence  than  from  any  other  circumstance. 

"  We  are,  as  in  my  last  letter,  I  prepared  you  to  expect,  re- 
turned to  Calcutta,  where  we  are  established  in  a  house  so  large 
as  quite  to  exceed  all  our  ideas  of  comfort.  I  feel  almost  lost  in 
a  dining-room  sixty- seven  feet  long,  a  drawing-room  of  the 
same  dimensions,  a  study  supported  by  arcades,  and  though 
low  in  proportion  to  its  size,  forty-five  feet  square.  Yet  these  over- 
grown rooms,  they  tell  us,  will  be  \ery  conxenient  and  comfort- 
able when  the  hot  winds  begin.  Of  these  we  have  already  had 
a  little — and  but  a  little — experience,  but  the  climate  is,  as  yet,  very 
tolerable.  We  are  obliged,  however,  to  be  on  our  horses  in  a 
morning  before  five  o'clock,  since  at  seven  the  sun  is  too  power- 
ful to  allow  us  to  be  exposed  to  it,  and  even  at  half-past  six  it  is 
as  hot  as  the  hottest  noon  in  England.  Often  and  often  during 
these  early  rides,  amid  palms  and  plantains,  or  on  the  broad 


CALCUTTA  AND  LOWER  BENGAL  179 


green  plain  which  surrounds  the  fort  and  the  city,  do  I  find  my 
fancy  wandering  to  Overton  Scar  or  the  lane  near  the  Lower 
Wych,  and  start  when  I  am  recalled  to  reality  by  the  bleating  of 
the  goats  and  the  cries  of  the  black  wild-looking  bearded  herdsmen. 
Even  my  study  has  a  sort  of  likeness,  from  its  arches,  etc.,  to  the 
Hall  at  Edge,  which  makes  me  love  it,  and  though  few  of  my 
books  or  prints  are  yet  unpacked,  there  is  one  drawing  on  which 
my  eyes  continually  rest,  which  I  used  to  quarrel  with  for  being 
so  little  like  you,  but  which  I  now  regard  with  an  interest  which 
I  can  hardly  express.  Dear,  kind  friend,  be  sure  I  shall  ever 
remember  you,  ever  love  and  pray  for  you,  ever  rejoice  to  hear 
of  your  happiness  ! 

"  Of  myself  I  have  little  more  to  say.  The  hot  months  have 
at  least  the  advantage  of  causing  a  cessation  in  the  gaieties  of 
Calcutta.  I,  too,  am  more  and  more  getting  rid  of  idle  forms 
and  parade,  and  do  not  find  that  I  am  the  less  respected  or  the 
worse  thought  of  for  riding  in  a  round  hat  and  loose  trousers,  as 
I  used  to  do  at  Hodnet.  Yet  Emily  tells  me  I  am  a  graver  man 
than  I  used  to  be,  and  the  ladies  here,  who,  I  know  not  why,  had 
conceived  a  very  different  opinion  of  me,  have  complained  that  I 
think  no  females  in  Calcutta  worth  talking  to.  I  do  not  plead 
guilty  to  the  charge.  Yet  the  truth  is,  I  may  well  be  a  little  graver 
than  I  used  to  be.  I  am  happy,  however,  and  I  hope  grateful. 
Adieu,  dear,  dear  sister.     God  bless  you  and  yours.     R.  C." 

In  Calcutta  Heber  witnessed  for  the  first  time  the  Charak 
Poojah,  or  swinging  festival,  held  on  the  sun's  entrance  into 
Aries,  in  honour  of  the  favourite  Bengali  goddess,  the  black 
Kali.  The  present  writer  witnessed  the  same  orgie  in  the  same 
place  thirty  years  afterwards,  but  the  police  have  since  interfered 
to  stop  it  in  the  interests  of  public  order  and  humanity.  "  The 
crowd  on  the  Maidan,"  he  wTites  in  his  Journal,  "was  great, 
and  very  picturesque.  The  music  consisted  chiefly  of  large 
double  drums,  ornamented  with  plumes  of  black  feathers,  like 
those  of  a  hearse,  which  rose  considerably  higher  than  the 
heads  of  the  persons  who  played  on  them ;  large  crooked 
trumpets,  like  the  '  litui '  of  the  ancients,  and  small  gongs 
suspended  from  a  bamboo,  which  rested  on  the  shoulders  of 
two  men,  the  last  of  whom  played  on  it  with  a  large,  thick, 
and  heavy  drum-stick,  or  cudgel.  All  the  persons  who  walked 
in  the  procession,  and  a  large  majority  of  the  spectators,  had 
their  faces,  bodies,  and  white  cotton  clothes  daubed  all  over 


i8o 


BISHOP  HEBER 


with  vermilion,  the  latter  to  a  degree  which  gave  them  the 
appearance  of  being  actually  dyed  rose-colour.  They  were 
also  crowned  with  splendid  garlands  of  flowers,  with  girdles 
and  baldrics  of  the  same.  Many  trophies  and  pageants  of 
different  kinds  were  paraded  up  and  down,  on  stages,  drawn 
by  horses,  or  bullocks.  Some  were  mythological,  others  were 
imitations  of  different  European  figures,  soldiers,  ships,  etc., 
and,  in  particular,  there  was  one  very  large  model  of  a  steam- 
boat. The  devotees  went  about  with  small  spears  through 
their  tongues  and  arms,  and  still  more  with  hot  irons  pressed 
against  their  sides.  All  were  naked  to  the  waist,  covered  with 
flowers,  and  plentifully  raddled  with  vermilion,  while  their 
long  black  wet  hair  hung  down  their  backs,  almost  to  their 
loins.  From  time  to  time,  as  they  passed  us,  they  laboured 
to  seem  to  dance,  but  in  general  their  step  was  slow,  their 
countenances  expressive  of  resigned  and  patient  suffering,  and 
there  was  no  appearance,  that  I  saw,  of  anything  like  frenzy 
or  intoxication.  The  peaceableness  of  the  multitude  was  also 
as  remarkable  as  its  number ;  no  troops  were  visible,  except 
the  two  sentries,  who  at  all  times  keep  guard  on  two  large 
tanks  in  the  Maidan  ;  no  police  except  the  usual  '  Chokeydar,' 
or  watchman,  at  his  post  near  Allypoor  Bridge  ;  yet  nothing 
like  quarrelling  or  rioting  occurred,  and  very  little  scolding. 
A  similar  crowd  in  England  would  have  shown  three  boxing- 
matches  in  half  an  hour,  and  in  Italy  there  would  have  been 
half  a  dozen  assassinations  before  night.  In  the  evening  I 
walked  in  another  direction,  towards  the  Boitaconnah,  and  the 
streets  chiefly  occu]iied  by  natives.    Here  I  saw  the  '  swing- 


CHAPTER  IX 


TO   DACCA  AND   THE  HIMALAYAS 
1824-1825 

After  five  months  of  incessant  toil,  during  which  the  new 
BishojD  cleared  off  arrears  of  ecclesiastical  business,  reconciled 
to  each  other  warring  chaplains  and  archdeacons,  inspected 
every  form  of  missionary  activity  and  public  charity  in  and 
around  Calcutta,  extended  the  building  and  developed  the 
working  power  of  Bishop's  College,  preached  frequently  three 
times  a  week,  and  influenced  the  Europeans  and  native  gentle- 
men by  his  social  as  well  as  official  attentions,  as  the  hot 
season  of  1824  reached  its  height  he  began  the  first  visitation 
of  his  great  diocese. 

On  Ascension  Day,  27th  May,  the  Bishop  delivered 
his  primary  charge^  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John,  "at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  to  avoid  the  heat  of  the  day."  A 
prelate  who  had  so  little  spared  himself,  and  whose  humbleness 
of  mind  was  as  winning  as  his  culture  and  spirituality  were 
known  to  all,  had  the  right  to  set  before  each  of  the  Company's 
chaplains  a  higher  ideal  of  his  office  and  life  than  had  generally 
been  sought — even  to  become  "  such  a  man  as  Marty n  was  " 
among  the  heathen.  For  the  missionaries  as  well  as  the 
chaplains  his  theme  was  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  great  enter- 
prise which  they  had  undertaken.  On  the  chaplain  he  pressed 
the  duty,  laid  down  in  the  old  charter,  of  "  the  attentive  and 

1  Published  liy  his  widow  (John  Murray,  1829)  in  a  volume  of  his  selected 
Senuu/is  Preached  in  India. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  183 


grammatical  study  of  some  one  of  the  native  languages,"  so  as 
to  "  endeavour  the  conversion  of  his  heathen  neighbours." 
"  It  is  with  no  common  thankfulness  to  God,"  he  proceeded 
to  say,  "  that  I  see  the  Episcopal  chair  of  Calcutta  now  first 
surrounded  by  those  who  are  missionaries  themselves,  as  well 
as  by  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  important  office  of  educat- 
ing youth  for  the  future  service  of  missions."  "  I  regard  it  as 
one  among  the  most  favourable  signs  of  the  present  times  that 
while  Providence  has,  in  a  manner  visible  and  almost  miracul- 
ous, prepared  a  highway  in  the  wilderness  of  the  world  for  the 
progress  of  His  truth,  and  made  the  ambition,  the  commerce, 
the  curiosity,  and  enterprise  of  mankind  His  implements  in 
opening  a  more  effectual  door  to  His  Gospel,  the  call  thus 
given  has  been  answered  by  a  display  of  zeal  unexampled  at 
any  time  since  the  period  of  the  Reformation ;  and  America 
and  England  have  united  with  Denmark  and  Germany  to 
send  forth  a  host  of  valiant  and  victorious  confessors  to  bear 
the  banner  of  the  Cross  where  darkness  and  death  have  hitherto 
spread  their  broadest  shadows." 

The  exertions  of  this  kind  during  the  last  fifteen  years, 
while  they  had  shut  the  mouths  of  critics  hostile  to  "the 
illumination  of  our  Indian  fellow-subjects,"  had  excited  those 
who,  "  though  themselves  not  idle,  .  .  .  were  ready  to  speak  evil 
of  the  work  itself  rather  than  that  others  who  followed  not  with 
them  should  cast  out  devils  in  the  name  of  their  common 
Master."  Thus  the  Metropolitan  alluded  to  the  notorious 
letters  which  had  then  appeared  from  the  pen  of  the  Mysore 
missionary,  the  Abbe  Dubois :  "  Like  those  spectre  forms 
which  the  madness  of  Orestes  saw  in  classical  mythology,  the 
spirit  of  religious  party  sweeps  before  us  in  the  garb  and  with 
the  attributes  of  pure  and  evangelical  religion.  The  cross  is 
on  her  shoulders,  the  chalice  in  her  hand,  and  she  is  anxiously 
busied,  after  her  manner,  in  the  service  of  Him  by  whose  holy 
name  she  also  is  called.  But  outstrip  her  in  the  race,  but 
press  her  a  little  too  closely,  and  she  turns  round  on  us  with 
all  the  hideous  features  of  envy  and  of  rage.  Her  hallowed  taper 
blazes  into  a  sulphurous  torch,  her  hairs  bristle  into  serpents, 
her  face  is  as  the  face  of  them  that  go  down  to  the  pit,  and 
her  words  are  words  of  blasphemy. 

"  What  other  spirit  could  have  induced  a  Christian  minister, 


84 


BISHOP  HEBER 


after  himself,  as  he  tells  us,  long  labouring  to  convert  the 
heathen,  to  assert  that  one  hundred  millions  of  human  beings — 
a  great,  a  civilised,  an  understanding,  and  a  most  ancient 
people — are  collectively  and  individually  under  the  sentence 
of  reprobation  from  God,  and  under  a  moral  incapacity  of 
receiving  that  Gospel  which  the  God  who  gave  it  hath  appointed 
to  be  made  known  to  all  ?  What  other  spirit  could  have 
prompted  a  member  of  that  Church  which  professes  to  hold 
out  the  greatest  comfort  to  sinners,  to  assert  of  a  nation  with 
whom,  whatever  are  their  faults,  I,  for  one,  should  think  it 
impossible  to  live  long  without  loving  them,  that  they  are  not 
only  enslaved  to  a  cruel  and  degrading  superstition,  .  .  .  and 
this  with  no  view  to  quicken  the  zeal  of  Christians  to  release 
them  from  their  miserable  condition,  but  that  Christians  may 
leave  them  in  that  condition  still,  to  the  end  that  they  may 
perish  everlastingly  ? " 

The  Bishop  of  Calcutta  then  appealed,  even  at  that  early 
period,  to  facts  drawn  not  only  from  the  results  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  at  Agra  and  Meerut,  Benares  and  Chunar, 
but  from  the  experience  of  the  Societies  not  connected  with 
the  Church  of  England.  "  Bear  witness,"  broke  forth  the 
burning  catholicity  of  the  chief  missionary  of  that  Church  in 
the  East,  "those  numerous  believers  of  our  own  immediate 
neighbourhood,  with  whom,  though  we  differ  on  many,  and, 
doubtless,  on  very  important  points,  I  should  hate  myself  if  1 
could  regard  them  as  any  other  than  my  brethren  and  fellow- 
servants  in  the  Lord.  Let  the  populous  Christian  districts  of 
the  Carnatic  and  Tanjor  bear  witness,  where  believers  are  not 
reckoned  by  solitary  individuals  but  by  hundreds  and  by 
thousands."^  "I  am  yet  to  learn,"  he  exclaimed,"that  the  idolatry 
which  surrounds  us  is  more  enthralling  in  its  influence  on  the 
human  mind  than  those  beautiful  phantoms  and  horrid  sorceries 
which  lurked  beneath  the  laurels  of  I  )elos  and  Daphne,  and  floated 
on  the  clouds  of  Olympus.  I  am  not  yet  convinced  that  the 
miserable  bondage  of  castes,  and  the  consequences  of  breaking 
that  bondage,  are  more  grievous  to  be  endured  by  the  modern 
Lidian  than  those  ghastly  and  countless  shapes  of  death  which 
beset  the  path  of  the  Roman  convert.    And  who  shall  make 

The  Conversion  of  India  from  Pantatius  to  the  Present  Time  (John 
Murray,  1893),  p.  74. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


.85 


me  believe  that  the  same  word  of  the  Most  High  which  con- 
signed to  the  moles  and  the  bats  the  idols  of  Chaldasa  and 
Babylon,  and  dragged  down  the  lying  Father  of  Gods  and 
men  from  his  own  capitol  and  the  battlements  of  his  '  Eternal 
City,'  must  yet  arrest  its  victorious  wheels  on  the  banks  of  the 
Indus  or  the  Ganges,  and  admit  the  trident  of  Siva  to  share 
with  the  Cross  a  divided  empire  ?"..."  Though  I  am  far 
from  placing  on  the  same  level  the  Brahmanical  and  the 
Romish  faith ;  and  though,  as  a  form — though  a  corrupt 
form — of  the  knowledge  whereby  men  are  brought  to  God,  I 
rejoice  in  every  conquest  which  this  latter  has  made  among 
the  heathen,  I  would  rather,  should  God  so  far  honour  me,  be 
the  instrument  of  bringing  one  idolater  to  the  worship  of  the 
one  true  God,  and  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man, 
than  to  have  persuaded,  like  Xavier,  my  tens  of  thousands  to 
patter  their  rosary  in  Latin  instead  of  Sanskrit,  and  transfer 
to  the  saints  the  honour  which  they  had  paid  to  the  Uevtas." 
Hoc  agite  was  the  motto  which  Reginald  Heber  left  with  all — 
"this  one  thing  do." 

Meanwhile,  after  insults  and  military  disasters  which  spread 
panic  among  the  natives  from  Chittagong  to  Calcutta,  there 
was  reluctantly  begun  the  first  of  those  three  wars  which  have 
extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Metropolitan,  and  the  duty  of 
all  the  Christian  churches  of  the  English-speaking  race,  right 
up  to  the  south-eastern  border  of  China.  Heber  would  not 
apply  to  Lord  Amherst  for  the  services  of  an  assistant-surgeon 
to  accompany  his  camp  on  his  visitation  of  the  districts  and 
provinces  of  Upper  India  not  inspected  by  his  predecessor, 
lest  he  should  thus  deprive  the  expedition  to  Rangoon  of  even 
one  medical  officer.  Accordingly,  his  wife  and  children  could 
not  join  him  till  he  reached  Bombay  ;  he  himself  suffered  more 
than  once  from  illness,  which  he  had  to  bear  in  solitude,  and 
his  domestic  chaplain,  Mr.  Stow,  died  early  on  the  tour. 

It  was  on  the  15th  of  June,  when  the  rainy  monsoon  first 
revives  the  gasping  residents  of  Bengal,  that  Heber  left 
Calcutta  for  Dacca  by  the  channel  of  the  Matabhanga,  through 
which  the  great  Ganges  spills  over  into  the  Hoogli  River.  In 
a  sixteen-oared  pinnace,  like  that  of  the  indigo-planter  of  olden 
days,  attended  by  two  boats  for  the  servants  and  for  cooking,  the 
party  of  two  Englishmen  and  forty-four  natives  were  carried  up 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


87 


swiftly  by  the  tide  past  Serampore  and  Barrackpore,  the  first 
twenty-four  miles,  to  the  French  settlement  of  Chandernagore, 
where  the  Governor,  M.  Pellisier,  and  his  chaplain  of  "the 
Tibet  Mission  "  were  most  courteous.  The  published  journal 
and  correspondence  detail  the  simple  pleasures  of  the  long 
tour,  and  discuss  economic  and  political  questions  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Governor-General  and  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control.  Heber's  letters  to  his  wife  and  to  Charlotte 
Dod,  their  friend,  reveal  the  hidden  life.  To  the  former,  after 
the  first  twelve  days'  separation,  he  writes  : — 

"On  the  Chununa,  28//; June  1824. 

"  My  DE.\R  Love — We  are  still  in  this  labyrinth  of  rivers,  and 
likely  to  be  several  days  yet  before  we  reach  Dacca.  Mr.  Master, 
however,  has  kindly  forwarded  your  packets  to  me,  and  I  write 
back  by  his  dak-boat,  which,  being  small  and  light,  will  be  there 
on  Wednesday.  Thank  you  for  your  interesting  letter.  I  never 
recollect  seeing  your  handwriting  with  more  or  so  much  delight 
as  now,  since  it  arrived  quite  unexpectedly,  and  I  had  no  hopes 
of  hearing  of  you  before  the  end  of  the  week. 

"The  stream  of  all  these  rivers,  ornearly  all,  has  been  against 
us  ;  and  we  had  in  one  place  a  bar  of  sand  to  cut  through,  which 
has  made  our  journey  very  tedious,  though  through  a  country, 
generally  speaking,  as  beautiful  as  groves  and  meadows  can  make 
it.  You  will,  1  hope,  ere  this  have  received  my  second  packet  of 
Journal  ;  and  the  third  I  will  send  from  ]3acca.  We  are  both,  I 
think,  gaining  health  fast.  ...  If  you  and  my  dear  children 
were  with  me,  I  should  enjoy  this  way  of  life  much.  Our  weather 
has  been,  generally,  good,  and  all  has  gone  on  well.  .  .  . 

"  This  course  has,  certainly,  been  a  long  one  ;  but  I  am,  on 
the  whole,  not  sorry  that  I  preferred  it.  It  has  shown  me  a  part 
of  Bengal  not  usually  traversed  by  Europeans,  and  decidedly, 
I  think,  the  most  beautiful.  We  have  had,  indeed,  no  more 
adventures  like  our  '  audience  '  at  Sibnibashi,  but  I  have  some 
things  to  send  which  I  trust  will  amuse  you,  and  I  have  had 
opportunities  of  making  four  large  drawings. — Your  affectionate 
husband,  Reginald  Calcutta." 

A  month  later,  when  off  Bogwangola,  now  a  railway  station 
not  far  from  which  Bishop  Cotton  afterwards  perished,  he 
wrote  and  sent  off  these  lines,  to  which  Mr.  Gladstone  long 


BISHOP  HEBER 


ago  gave  a  new  interest  in  the  volume  ^  which  he  dedicated 
"ex  voto  communi  in  memoriam  duphcum  nuptiarum  viii. 
Kal.  Aug.  MDCCCXXXIX  :  "— 


BISHOP  HEBER'S 
VERSES  TO  HIS  WIFE 

' '  If  thou  wert  by  my  side,  my  love, 
How  fast  would  evening  fail. 

In  green  Bengala's  palmy  grove. 
Listening  the  nightingale  ! 

"If  thou,  my  love,  wert  by  my  side, 

My  babies  at  my  knee. 
Mow  gaily  would  our  pinnace  glide 

O'er  Gunga's  mimic  sea ! 

"  I  miss  thee  at  the  dawning  day, 
When,  on  the  deck  reclined, 

In  careless  ease  my  limbs  I  lay, 
And  woo  the  cooler  wind. 

"  I  miss  thee,  when  by  Gunga's  stream 

My  twilight  steps  I  guide  ; 
But  most  beneath  the  lamp's  pale 
beam 

I  miss  thee  from  my  side. 

"  I  spread  my  books,  my  pencil  try. 
The  lingering  noon  to  cheer  ; 

But  miss  thy  kind  approving  eye, 
Thy  meek  attentive  ear. 

"  But  when  of  morn  and  eve  the  star 
Beholds  me  on  my  knee, 

I  feel,  though  thou  art  distant  far, 
Thy  prayers  ascend  for  me. 

"  Then  on  !  Then  on  !  where  duty 
leads. 

My  course  be  onward  still  ; 
O'er    broad    Hindoostan's  sultry 
meads, 
O'er  bleak  Almora's  hill. 


Mr.  GLADSTONE  S 
LATIN  TRANSLATION 

' '  Tu  modo  dux,tu  comes,  Uxor,esses, 
t^uamdaret  molles  Philomela  cantus, 
Palmea  ut  felix  moreretur  hora 
Vesperis  umbra  ! 

' '  Tu  modo,  ac  tecum  soboles,patemo 
Pendula  amplexu,  latus  assideres  ; 
Suaviter  Gunga;  scaphus  auream  de- 
scenderet  undam. 

"  Mane,  surgenti  relevandus  aura, 
Dum  super  cymbs  tabulas  recumbo, 
Te  reluctanti,  licet  otiosus 

Corde  requiram. 

"  Vespera,   Gungre  prope  flumen 

Te  petam  desiderio  fideli  ; 
Pallidam  Te  projiciente  noclu 

Lampade  flammam. 

"Cum  nequeaspectu  recreerbenigno, 
Nec  proba  vox  accipiatur  aure, 
Displicent  libri  ;  male  penicillis 
Fallitur  jestus. 

"Rite  mi  flexis  genibus  precanti, 
Supplices  et  Te  sociare  palmas 
Stella  nascentis  videt  ac  diei 
Stella  cadentis. 

"Proinde  quo  virtus  jubet  ire  per- 
gam, 

Almorpe  scandens  gelidum  cacumen, 
Seu  juga  Indorum  sequar,  atque 
campos 

Sole  perustos. 


'  Translations,  by  Lord  Lyttelton  and  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone, 
second  edition,  London,  Quaritch,  1863. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


"  That  course  nor  Delhi's  kingly 
gates, 

Nor  wild  Mahva  detain  ; 
For  sweet  the  bliss  that  me  awaits 
By  yonder  western  main. 

"Thy  towers,  Bombay, gleam  bright, 

they  say, 
Across  the  dark  blue  sea  ; 
But  ne'er  were  hearts  so  light  and 

gay, 

As  then  shall  meet  in  thee." 


"Dellia,  ac  regum  domus  et  columnoe, 
Barbaras  nec  me  tenet  ora  Malvce  ; 
Dulcius  quiddam  Ilesperius  recludit 
Marmore  pontus. 


"  Bombacoe  turres,  rutila;  per  a.'quor, 
O  diem  faustum  !    O  bona  fata  ! 
quando 

Conjuges,  \xli  manibus  reprensis, 
Limen  inibunt." 


To  Charlotte  Dod  Heber  thus  told  the  sad  tale  of  the 
death  of  Stow,  as  he  did  to  his  wife's  cousin,  Augustus  W. 
Hare,  .Stow's  dearest  friend,  who  was  charged  with  the  difficult 
task  of  telling  Maria  Leycester.i 

"  IIajiounj,  near  Dacca,  2-},rdJuly  1S24. 
"  My  dearest  Charlotte — I  have  been  long  meditating  a 
letter  to  you,  but  while  in  Calcutta  I  was  closely  occupied,  and 
since  I  began  my  intended  journey  through  the  northern  half  of 
this  great  diocese,  I  have  had  much,  not  only  of  occupation,  but 
of  anxiety  and  sorrow.  Our  medical  advisers  in  Calcutta  had 
given  it  as  their  opinion  that  it  was  not  safe  to  take  Emily  and 
the  children  on  such  a  journey  as  I  proposed,  that  they,  there- 
fore (it  was  settled),  were  to  go  by  sea  to  meet  me  at  Bombay 
next  spring,  and  that  I  was  to  be  accompanied  by  Stow  only. 
Had  they  gone  with  me,  he  was  to  have  remained  in  Calcutta, 
where  his  services,  in  the  present  scarcity  of  clergy,  were  much 
wanted.  But  my  wife  was  very  unwilling  that  I  should  go  quite 
alone,  and  it  was  believed  that  his  health  would  receive  considerable 
advantage  from  a  three  months'  sail  on  the  Ganges,  and  a  four  or 
five  months'  march  in  the  cooler  climate  of  Upper  and  Central 
India.  His  sister  remained  with  my  wife,  and  was  to  accompany 
her  to  Bombay. 

"  We  embarked  at  Calcutta  the  fifteenth  of  last  month, 
and,  owing  to  various  little  obstacles  arising  from  the  season 
and  other  circumstances,  did  not  reach  Dacca  till  the  fourth 
of  the  present.  During  this  time  of  close  and  constant  inter- 
course, occupants  of  the  same  little  boat,  and  with  no  other 


'  Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life,  vol.  i.  pp.  57-64. 


BISHOP  HEBER 


society,  I  had  more  opportunity  of  knowing  him  than  I  ever  had 
before,  and  though,  I  think,  you  never  much  hked  him,  you  must 
allow  me  to  say  that  I  found  very  much  to  esteem  and  love  in 
him.  It  will  be  long  before  I  forget  the  guilelessness  of  his 
nature,  the  interest  which  he  felt  and  expressed  in  all  the  beauti- 
ful and  sequestered  scenery  which  we  passed  through,  his  anxiety 
to  be  useful  to  me  in  any  way  which  I  should  point  out  to  him 
(indeed,  he  was  very  useful),  and,  above  all,  the  unaffected  plea- 
sure which  he  took  in  discussing  religious  subjects,  his  diligence 
in  studying  the  Bible,  and  the  fearless  humanity  with  which  he 
examined  the  cases  and  administered  to  the  wants  of  nine  poor 
Hindoos,  the  crew  of  a  salt  barge,  whom  we  found  lying  sick 
together  of  a  jungle  fever,  unable  to  leave  the  place  where  they 
lay,  and  unaided  by  the  neighbouring  villagers.  I  then  little 
thought  how  soon  he  in  his  turn  would  require  the  aid  he  now 
gave  so  cheerfully.  A  few  days  after  he  caught  cold  from  wading 
imprudently  in  some  marshy  ground,  and  was  attacked  by  a 
malignant  dysentery,  which  (for  want,  perhaps,  of  timely  medical 
help)  had  weakened  him  so  far  before  we  reached  Dacca,  that  he 
was  obliged  to  be  carried  from  his  cabin  to  the  bedroom  pre- 
pared for  him  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Master,  the  principal  judge  of 
the  city.  The  usual  remedies  produced  no  favourable  effect,  but 
his  constitution  struggled  against  the  complaint  with  a  strength 
which  surprised  us  all,  and  which  for  a  long  time  flattered  both 
myself  and  his  medical  attendants  with  the  fallacious  hope  of  his 
recovery. 

"  He  himself  was  the  first  convinced  of  his  own  condition, 
and  I  trust  I  shall  never  forget  the  moving  manner  in  which 
he  prepared  himself  to  die  —  the  severity  of  self-humiliation 
with  which  he  examined  and  censured  the  errors  and  infirmities 
of  his  past  life,  the  fervour  of  his  prayers,  the  solemn  delight 
which  he  expressed  when  I  read  the  Scriptures  to  him,  the  deep 
contrition  and  lowliness  of  heart  with  which  he  threw  himself  on 
his  Redeemer's  mercies,  and  the  blessed  and  gradually-increasing 
hope  which,  when  his  first  struggle  was  over,  our  gracious  Master 
cheered  him  with.  When  his  strength  was  gradually  wearing 
away  he  said,  '  God  and  his  dear  Son,  in  their  goodness,  are 
making  this  passage  more  and  more  easy  to  me.'  At  another 
time,  '  If  I  lose  sight  of  the  Cross,  though  but  for  a  moment,  I 
am  ready  to  despair,  but  my  blessed  Lord  makes  His  mercy  and 
His  power  more  and  more  plain  to  me.'  On  Friday  night,  having 
left  him  in  a  doze,  and  being  myself  pretty  much  worn  out,  I  had 
gone  to  lie  down  for  a  couple  of  hours,  leaving  one  of  the  surgeons 


192 


BISHOP  HEBER 


with  him.  He  wakened,  however,  soon  after,  called  earnestly 
for  me,  and  when  I  came,  threw  his  arms  round  my  neck  and 
begged  me  not  to  leave  him.  They  had  given  him  laudanum, 
and  his  dreams  had  been  unhappy.  He  soon  grew  composed, 
but  said,  '  This  horrid  drug  confused  my  brain  sadly,  but  now  I 
remember  all  you  told  me,  and  all  that  God  has  done  for  me 
through  His  Son.  Pray,  pray,  do  not  let  them  give  me  any  more 
of  it,  for  it  makes  me  unfit  to  pray.'  Then  after  a  little  pause, 
'  How  sorry  I  am  to  have  disturbed  you  !  I  will  not  call  you 
again,  but  if  I  grow  worse,  Mr.  Paterson  will  .  .  .  and  pray, 
pray,  be  with  me  when  the  hour  comes  ! '  He  commended  his 
poor  sister  earnestly  to  the  care  of  myself  and  Emily,  and  said, 
'  Poor,  poor  girl  !  God,  who  is  so  good  to  a  sinner  like  me,  will 
not  forget  her  / ' 

"A  great  part  of  the  following  day  he  was  light-headed, 
but  always  continued  to  know  me,  and  when  I  said,  '  Let 
us  pray,'  to  fold  his  hands  and  compose  himself  to  attention. 
When  I  brought  him  some  nourishment  he  said,  '  I  know  you 
will  not  give  me  laudanum.'  Another  time  he  said,  '  It  is  very 
strange,  everything  else  changes  with  me  ;  I  do  not  know  what 
has  happened  to  me,  or  whether  I  am  among  the  living  or  the 
dead,  but  I  always  see  your  face  near  me,  and  recollect  what  you 
have  been  saying  to  me.'  Soon  after  tea  on  Saturday  night,  after 
a  short  but  severe  fit  of  spasms,  he  sank  into  a  quiet  slumber, 
and,  a  little  after  midnight,  died  without  a  groan,  leaving  a  coun- 
tenance singularly  calm  and  beautiful,  with  far  fewer  marks  of 
death  than  it  had  e.xhibited  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  not  like 
a  corpse  so  much  as  a  statue.  I  myself  closed  his  eyes,  and,  with 
the  help  of  Mr.  Paterson,  laid  out  his  body — the  superstitions  of 
my  servants  preventing  them  from  giving  any  assistance.  He  was 
buried  the  next  day  in  the  European  cemetery,  which  I  myself 
consecrated  exactly  a  week  before.  All  the  little  society  of 
English  in  Dacca,  as  well  as  the  officers  from  the  militarj'  station 
and  a  detachment  of  artillerymen,  attended  his  funeral  unsolicited. 
His  youth,  indeed,  his  recent  arrival  in  India,  the  circum- 
stances under  which  his  illness  visited  him,  and  his  amiable 
manners  (probably),  as  reported  by  his  medical  attendants  and 
the  few  others  who  had  seen  him,  excited  a  great  and  remarkable 
interest  in  the  settlement  ;  and  not  only  the  Europeans,  but  some 
of  the  principal  natives,  particularly  the  Nuwab  {Nabob  he  would 
be  called  in  the  barbarous  pronunciation  of  England),  were  con- 
stant in  their  inquiries  after  him,  their  presents  of  fruit,  etc. 
What  his  poor  sister's  plans  are,  as  yet  I  know  not.     I  have 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  193 

written  to  ask  her  to  remain  with  us,  but  I  suspect  she  will,  under 
all  circumstances,  prefer  returning  to  England. 

"This  has  been  a  painful  dispensation  to  me,  but  I  trust  it 
will  not  be  a  useless  one.  It  may  teach  me  to  value  more  the 
excellent  friends  who  are  yet  spared  to  me,  now  that  fresh  ex- 
perience has  taught  me  how  ill  their  loss  can  be  borne,  and  on 
how  slight  a  thread  our  social  comforts  hang.  It  may  teach  me 
to  draw  nearer  to,  and  acc[uaint  myself  more  with  the  Great  and 
Onl)^  Friend  Who  will  never  leave  me  or  forsake  me.  And,  above 
all,  now  that  I  have  seen  how  awful  the  approach  of  death  was 
to  one  the  far  greater  part  of  whose  life  had,  I  am  persuaded, 
been  innocent  and  useful,  it  cannot  fail,  I  trust,  to  move  me  to 
timely  repentance,  and  to  teach  me  more  and  more  the  value  and 
blessedness  of  that  Cross  which  was  poor  Stow's  only  support 
and  consolation. 

"  1  have  sent  you  these  details,  my  dear  friend,  partly  because 
I  was  sure  they  would  interest  you,  partly  because  I  think  you 
did  Stow,  while  in  England,  some  injustice  in  your  opinions  of 
him  ;  and  still  more,  because  now  that  I  am  denied  the  happiness 
of  con\ersing  with  you,  it  is  a  comfort  to  me  to  be  able  to 
write  to  you  without  reserve  on  such  subjects  as  the  present. 
This  is  the  second  old  and  valued  friend  (Sir  C.  Puller,  Chief 
Justice,  was  the  former)  who  has  within  these  few  weeks  been 
taken  from  me.  How  long  I  am  myself  to  tarry  here  God  knows, 
but  my  trust  in  His  mercy  is  that  He  will  keep  me  always  not 
unfit  to  die. 

"  I  have  recommenced  my  long,  and  now  my  solitary  voyage, 
but  it  is  probable  that  in  a  few  weeks  I  shall  have  companions. 
Emily,  on  hearing  of  Stow's  danger,  wrote  to  beg  earnestly  that, 
in  case  of  anything  happening  to  him,  she  might  at  any  risk  be 
allowed  to  join  me  at  the  Rajmahal  Hills,  where  the  Hoogly,  on 
which  Calcutta  stands,  diverges  from  the  eastern  branch  of  the 
Ganges,  which  I  am  now  navigating.  I  have  referred  her  to  Dr. 
Abel,  but  am  myself  of  opinion,  from  knowing  her  character,  that 
her  anxiety,  if  left  behind  under  present  circumstances,  will  do  her 
more  harm  than  is  likely  to  arise,  either  to  the  children  or  herself, 
from  the  ordinary  fatigues  and  privations  of  an  Eastern  journey. 
My  own  health  has  in  all  essential  points  continued  excellent. 
My  only  plague  has  been  boils,  which  in  this  climate  during  the 
hot  months  are  very  common  and  painful,  but  which  generally 
disappear  (as  they  are  in  my  case  doing)  as  the  rainy  season 
advances.  I  do  not  think  Emily  has  suffered  from  the  climate, 
and  our  children  are  perfect  pictures  of  health  and  cheerfulness, 
o 


194 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Nor  can  I  repent  having  come  to  India.  The  singular  and 
beautiful  scenery,  the  interesting  habits  of  the  people,  the  gliding 
day  by  day,  as  I  am  now  doing,  along  noble  rivers,  between  banks 
sometimes  teeming  with  population,  sometimes  wrapped  in  almost 
boundless  shade,  and  offering  to  a  European  eye  some  of  the 
rarest  and  most  splendid  objects  of  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms,  would,  under  any  circumstances,  indeed,  be  a  wretched 
payment  for  all  I  have  left  behind  ;  though  there  have  been 
evenings  when,  with  palms  waving  over  my  head,  and  standing 
amid  thickets  of  broad  white  night-blowing  flowers,  I  have 
watched  the  fireflies,  like  airy  glowworms,  floating,  rising,  and 
sinking  in  the  gloom  of  the  bamboo  woods,  and  gazed  on  the 
mighty  river  with  the  unclouded  breadth  of  a  tropical  moon  sleep- 
ing on  its  waves,  and  said  in  my  heart,  '  It  is  good  to  be  here  I ' 
till  I  recollect,  alas  !  how  much  more  of  health,  of  animal  spirits, 
and  intellectual  enjoyment  I  had  derived  in  former  days  from  a 
ramble  with  you  on  a  frosty  morning  under  Overton  Scar.  But 
I  am  sure  I  came  out  hither  desiring  to  do  good,  and  though  I 
have  fallen  far  short  of  my  intention,  I  hope  I  have  not  alto- 
gether failed  in  doing  it.  Even  this  journey,  and  what  I  have 
seen  in  the  ancient  and  half-deserted  city  which  I  have  just  left, 
bids  fair  to  open  to  me  fresh  and  important  doors  for  advancing 
the  purposes  for  which  I  came  out.  I  have  been  received  with 
much  kindness  everywhere,  and  in  my  late  sorrow  found  fi'iends — 
delicate,  attentive  friends — among  utter  strangers  ;  all  which  I 
have  experienced,  in  fact,  increases  my  trust  in  God  and  my 
gratitude  to  Him.  May  He  grant  that  it  may  also  increase  my 
zeal  and  activity  in  His  service.  Pray  give  my  love  (I  can  send 
no  colder  word)  to  your  father,  mother,  sisters,  and  Conny. 
Remember  me  most  kindly  to  Ned  Davenport  (who  never  writes 
to  me),  and  to  Miss  Shute  when  you  write  to  her,  and  believe 
me,  dearest  Charlotte,  with  perfect  sincerity  of  aftection,  ever 
your  faithful  friend,  R.  C.\LCUTTA." 

From  Dacca,  where  the  first  edition  of  Carey's  Bengali  New 
Testament  (1800)  had  been  the  means  of  forming  the  new  sect 
of  truth-seekers  known  as  Satya-gooroos,  Heber  wrote  thus  to 
Wynn  of  the  Board  of  Control : — 

"  Many  of  the  younger  Musalmans  of  rank,  who  have  no  hope 
of  advancement  either  in  the  amiy  or  the  State,  sooner  or  later 
sink  into  sots,  or  kindle  into  dacoits  and  rebels.  As  a  remedy 
for  this  evil,  I  ha\  e  heard  the  propriety  suggested  of  raising  corps 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  195 


of  cavalry  of  the  same  description,  but  ot  smaller  numbers,  than 
those  of  Skinner  and  Baddely,  which  might  be  commanded  by 
the  natives  of  highest  rank,  but  kept  in  the  Company's  pay,  and 
assimilated,  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  rest  of  the  army.  They 
might  easily,  it  was  said,  be  stationed  so  as  not  to  be  dangerous, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  render  regular  troops  disposable  for  other 
purposes.  The  idea  somewhat  resembles  that  of  Forbes,  before 
the  year  1745,  raising  Highland  regiments  ;  and,  perhaps,  it 
may  be  true  that  the  best  way  to  make  men  loyal  is  to  make  them 
respectable  and  comfortable,  while  to  keep  them  employed  is 
most  likely  to  keep  them  out  of  mischief  They  are  not,  how- 
ever, the  great  men  only  who  are  inclined  to  copy  the  English  ;  a 
desire  of  learning  our  language  is  almost  universal  even  here,  and 
in  these  waste  bazars  and  sheds,  where  I  should  never  have  ex- 
pected anything  of  the  kind,  the  dressing-boxes,  writing-cases, 
cutlery,  chintzes,  pistols,  and  fowling-pieces,  engravings,  and  other 
English  goods,  or  imitations  of  English,  which  are  seen,  evince 
how  fond  of  them  the  middling  and  humbler  classes  are  become. 
Here,  too,  a  knowledge  of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  in  spite  of 
the  Abbd  Dubois,  is  rapidly  increasing.  A  Baptist  missionary 
has  established  a  circle  of  twenty-six  day  schools,  containing  more 
than  1000  boys,  who  all  read  the  New  Testament  as  their  daily 
task,  without  any  objection  being  made  ;  and  had  the  Church 
of  England  Societies  a  missionary  at  present  to  spare,  he  might 
in  a  month  double  the  number.  Of  all  these,  indeed,  few  will  be 
directly  converted,  but  these  examples,  as  well  as  my  own  ex- 
perience (and  I  think  I  am  now  able  to  form  an  opinion),  con- 
vince me  that  the  Hindostani  version,  at  least,  is  neither  unin- 
telligible nor  contemptible." 

After  eighteen  days  spent  in  Dacca,  Heber  hastened  up 
the  flooded  rivers  of  the  Ganges  system  to  Bhagulpoor,  where 
Archdeacon  Corrie  had  arranged  to  join  him,  and  where  his 
wife  also  sought  to  be  with  him  after  such  experiences.  Often 
as,  towards  sunset,  he  sought  exercise  and  opportunities  of 
talking  to  the  people  on  the  bank,  while  the  boats  were  slowly 
tugged  against  the  current,  he  composed  such  lines  as  these, 
"  the  Christian  Abdulla "  remonstrating  with  him  because 
much  exercise  had  turned  his  hair  so  gray  since  his  arrival 
in  Bengal : — 


[96 


BISHOP  HEBER 


AN  EVENING  WALK  IN  BENGAL 

Our  task  is  done  !  on  Gunga's  breast 

The  sun  is  sinking  down  to  rest ; 

And,  moor'd  beneatli  the  tamarind  bough, 

Our  bark  has  found  its  harbour  now. 

With  furled  sail,  and  painted  side, 

Behold  the  tiny  frigate  ride. 

Upon  her  deck,  'mid  charcoal  gleams, 

The  Moslem's  savoury  supper  steams, 

While  all  apart,  beneath  the  wood. 

The  Hindoo  cooks  his  simpler  food. 

"  Come,  walk  with  me  the  jungle  through  ; 
If  yonder  hunter  told  us  true. 
Far  off,  in  desert  dank  and  rude, 
The  tiger  holds  his  solitude  ; 
Nor  (taught  by  recent  harm  to  shun 
The  thunders  of  the  English  gun) 
A  dreadful  guest,  but  rarely  seen. 
Returns  to  scare  the  village  green. 
Come  boldly  on  !  no  venom'd  snake 
Can  shelter  in  so  cool  a  brake. 
Child  of  the  sun  !  he  loves  to  lie 
'Midst  Nature's  embers,  parch'd  and  dry, 
Where  o'er  some  tower  in  ruin  laid. 
The  pecpul  spreads  its  haunted  shade  ; 
Or  round  a  tomb  his  scales  to  wreathe, 
Fit  warder  in  the  gate  of  death  ! 
Come  on  !    Yet  pause  !  behold  us  now 
Beneath  the  bamboo's  arched  bough. 
Where,  gemming  oft  that  sacred  gloom, 
Glows  the  geranium's  scarlet  bloom,' 
And  winds  our  path  through  many  a  bower 
Of  fragrant  tree  and  giant  flower  ; 
The  ceiba's  crimson  pomp  display'd  "1 
O'er  the  broad  plantain's  humbler  shade,  V 
And  dusk  ananas'  prickly  blade  ;  J 
While  o'er  the  brake,  so  wild  and  fair. 
The  betel  waves  his  crest  in  air. 
With  pendent  train  and  rushing  wings. 
Aloft  the  gorgeous  peacock  springs  ; 


'  A  shrub  whose  deep  scarlet  flowers  very  much  resemble  the  geranium, 
and  thence  called  the  Indian  geranium. — Mrs.  Heber. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


And  he,  the  bird  of  hundred  dyes, 

Whose  pUimes  the  dames  of  Ava  prize. 

So  rich  a  shade,  so  green  a  sod, 

Our  Enghsh  fairies  never  trod  ! 

Yet  who  in  Indian  bow'rs  has  stood, 

But  thought  on  England's  'good  greenwood' 

And  bless'd,  beneath  the  pahny  shade, 

Iler  hazel  and  her  hawthorn  glade, 

And  breath'd  a  prayer  (how  oft  in  vain  ! ) 

To  gaze  upon  her  oaks  again  ? 

A  truce  to  thought  :  the  jackal's  cry 

Resounds  like  sylvan  revelry  ; 

And  through  the  trees  yon  failing  ray 

Will  scantly  serve  to  guide  our  way. 

Yet  mark  !  as  fade  the  upper  skies. 

Each  thicket  opes  ten  thousand  eyes. 

Before,  beside  us,  and  above. 

The  firefly  lights  his  lamp  of  love, 

Retreating,  chasing,  sinking,  soaring, 

The  darkness  of  the  copse  exploring  ; 

While  to  this  cooler  air  confest. 

The  broad  Dhatura  bares  her  breast 

Of  fragrant  scent,  and  virgin  white, 

A  pearl  around  the  locks  of  night  ! 

Still  as  we  pass  in  soften'd  hum,  \ 

Along  the  breezy  alleys  come  V 

The  village  song,  the  horn,  the  drum.  J 

Still  as  we  pass,  from  bush  and  briar, 

The  shrill  cigala  strikes  his  lyre  ; 

And,  what  is  she  whose  liquid  strain 

Thrills  through  yon  copse  of  sugar-cane  ? 

I  know  that  soul-entrancing  swell  ! 

It  is — it  must  be — Philomel  ! 

"  Enough,  enough,  the  rustling  trees 
Announce  a  shower  upon  the  breeze, — 
The  flashes  of  the  summer  sky 
Assume  a  deeper,  ruddier  dye  ; 
Yon  lamp  that  trembles  on  the  stream 
From  forth  our  cabin  sheds  its  beam  ; 
And  we  must  early  sleep,  to  find 
Betimes  the  morning's  healthy  wind. 
But  oh  !  with  thankful  hearts  confess 
Ev'n  here  there  may  be  happiness  ; 
And  He,  the  bounteous  Sire,  has  given 
His  peace  on  earth — His  hope  of  heaven." 


198 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  I  wrote  this,  endeavouring  to  fancy  that  I  was  not  alone.  I 
beheve  only  one  note  is  necessary.  The  bird  of  'hundred  dyes' 
is  the  mucharunga,  '  many-coloured.'  I  am  not  sure  whether 
I  mentioned  the  fact  before,  but  I  learned  at  Dacca,  that  while 
we  were  at  peace  with  the  Burmans,  many  traders  used  to  go 
over  all  the  eastern  provinces  of  Bengal,  buying  up  these  beauti- 
ful birds  for  the  Golden  Zennana  ;  at  Ummerapoora  it  was  said 
that  they  sometimes  were  worth  a  gold  mohur  each." 

Another  eighteen  days  were  spent  in  the  slow  voyage  from 
Dacca  to  Bhagulpore,  during  which  he  received  news  of  the 
illness  of  Harriet,  his  second  child  : — 

"  FURREEDPOOR,  2%th  July  1824. 

"  Alas  !  alas  !  my  beloved  wife,  what  have  you  not  gone 
through  ?  Your  letter  of  24th  July  has  just  reached  me  from 
Dacca.  God's  will  be  done  in  all  things  !  Your  joining  me  is 
out  of  the  question.  But  I  need  not  tell  you  to  spare  no  expense 
of  sea-voyage,  or  any  other  measure  which  may  tend  to  restore  or 
preserve  our  dear  children  or  yourself,  so  soon  as  such  a  measure 
may  appear  desirable  for  any  of  you.  .  .  . 

"  I  am,  at  this  moment,  strangely  tempted  to  come  to  you. 
But  I  fear  it  might  be  a  compromise  of  my  duty  and  a  distrust  of 
God  !  I  feel  most  grateful  indeed  to  Him  for  the  preservation  of 
our  invaluable  treasures.  I  pray  God  to  bless  Lady  Amherst, 
and  all  who  are  dear  to  her,  and  to  show  kindness  tenfold  to  her 
children,  for  all  the  kindness  she  has  shown  ours. 

"  I  am  going  on  immediately,  with  a  heavy  heart  indeed,  but 
with  trust  in  His  mercies.     Farewell  ! 

"  Reginald  C.\lcutta." 

When  on  his  way  from  Dinajpore  to  join  Marshman  and 
Ward  at  Serampore,  Carey  first  preached  Christ  in  their  own 
tongue  to  the  hillmen  of  Rajmahal  and  Santalia.  "  I  long,"  ^ 
he  wrote  in  1799,  "to  stay  here  and  tell  these  social  and  un- 
tutored heathen  the  good  news  from  heaven."  Corrie  after- 
wards felt  the  same  longing,  and  made  ineffectual  attempts. 
Now  the  set  time  had  come  with  Reginald  Heber.  Delighting 
in  his  call  and  in  his  power  as  "  chief  missionar)',"  he  made 
Bhagulpoor,  the  comparatively  healthy  centre  for  the  hill 

■  Life  0/  William  Carey,  D.D.,  2nd  ed.  p.  io6  {John  Murray). 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


199 


country,  the  base  of  a  mission.  At  its  head  he  placed  Rev. 
Thomas  Christian,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  the  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  to  Bishop's  College.  Commend- 
ing the  new  missionary  and  his  work  to  Colonel  Francklyn, 
worthy  successor  of  the  young  Cleveland,^  who  had  begun  the 
civilisation  of  the  people  among  whom  he  had  laid  down  his 
life,  and  charging  him  also  to  minister  every  month  to  the 
residents  of  Monghyr,  who  had  no  chaplain,  the  Bishop  pro- 
ceeded on  his  tour  with  a  joyfulness  reflected  in  all  he  wrote 


at  this  time.  Mr.  Christian  showed  himself  as  devoted  as 
Cleveland,  and  his  career  was  as  brief  Having  mastered  the 
hill  language  and  introduced  among  the  people  portions  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  taught  them  in  their  own  villages  for  the  healthy 
season  of  each  year,  and  then  took  with  him  to  Bhagulpoor 
their  most  hopeful  youth  for  training  as  catechists.  But  in 
three  years  jungle  fever  carried  off  both  him  and  his  wife. 
Under  the  care  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  the  Free 

^  The  Persian  inscription  was  thus  translated  by  Francklyn  :  ' '  This  monu- 
ment is  erected  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Augustus  Cleveland,  Collector  of  Bhagul- 
poor and  Rajmahal,  who  died  the  3rd  of  January  1784  "  (Hindoo  and  Moliam- 
medan  dates  follow).  "  The  Zemindars  of  the  district  and  the  Amleh  (native 
officers  of  the  court),  in  memory  of  the  kindness  and  beneficence  exhibited 
towards  them  by  the  late  Mr.  Cleveland,  have,  at  their  own  expense,  furnished 
this  monument,  A.D.  1786." 


20O 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Church  of  Scotland,  and  others,  forty  years  after,  and  with  the 
aid  of  administrators  hke  Sir  George  Yule,  though  not  till  the 
Santal  rebellion  of  1 856  had  convinced  the  East  India  Company 
that  the  missionary  is  a  better  tamer  of  highlanders  than  the 
soldier,  the  Santalees  began  to  flock  into  the  kingdom  of 
God's  dear  Son.^ 

Heber  thus  wrote  to  his  successor  and  brother-in-law  in 
Hodnet  Rectory  of  the  good  work  in  the  uplands  of  Bahar  : — 

"To  THE  Rev.  C.  Cholmondeley  and  Mrs.  Cholmondeley 

"  Rahmatgunge,  between  Cawnpoor 
AND  LUCKNOW,  19M  October  1824. 
"  My  dear  Charles  and  Mary — I  write  to  both  in  one 
letter  because,  from  the  rambling  nature  of  the  life  which  I  have 
been  for  some  time  leading,  and  still  more  from  the  number 
of  business  letters  which  I  am  obliged  to  attend  to,  I  have  far 
less  time  than  I  could  wish  to  thank  my  friends  at  home  for  the 
kind  and  interesting  packets  which  I  receive  from  them.  Of 
those  packets,  I  can  assure  you  none  has  given  Emily  and  myself 
more  pleasure  than  Charles's  account  of  the  birth  of  your  little 
boy.  .  .  . 

"  The  language  of  Bengal,  which  is  quite  different  from 
Hindostani,  is  soft  and  liquid.  The  common  people  are  all 
fond  of  singing,  and  some  of  the  airs  which  I  used  to  hear  from 
the  boatmen  and  children  in  the  villages  reminded  me  of  the 
Scotch  melodies.  I  heard  more  than  once  '  My  boy  Tammy,' 
and  '  Here's  a  health  to  those  far  away,'  during  some  of  those 
twilight  walks,  after  my  boat  was  moored,  which  wanted  only 
society  to  make  them  delightful,  when  amid  the  scent  and  glow 
of  night-blowing  flowers,  the  soft  whisper  of  waving  palms, 
and  the  warbling  of  the  nightingale,  watching  the  innumerable 
fireflies,  like  air)'  glowworms,  floating,  rising,  and  sinking,  in  the 
gloom  of  the  bamboo  woods,  and  gazing  on  the  mighty  river  with 
the  unclouded  breadth  of  a  tropical  moon  sleeping  on  its  surface, 
I  felt  in  my  heart  it  is  good  to  be  here. 

"As  we  approach  the  frontiers  of  Bahar,  these  beauties  dis- 


'  Heber  specially  mentions  the  hill  country  to  the  south  of  Mandargiri, 
Vishnu's  hill,  and  away  to  Deoghur,  Shiva's  shrine,  once  held  by  the  Buddhists, 
as  a  land  for  the  missionary.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Macphail,  from  Chakai  as  a 
centre,  has  for  some  years  itinerated  there,  healing  the  sick  and  proclaiming 
that  the  Kingdom  has  come  nigh  to  the  weary  peoples. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


201 


appear,  and  are  replaced  by  two  or  three  days'  sail  of  hideously 
ugly,  bare,  treeless,  level  country,  till  some  blue  hills  are  seen, 
and  a  very  pretty  and  woody  tract  succeeds  with  high  hills  little 
cultivated,  but  peopled  by  a  singular  and  interesting  race,  the 
Welsh  of  India.  ...  I  have  now  taken  measures  for  placing  an 
ordained  missionary  of  the  Church  of  England  among  them,  and 
hope  to  be  the  means,  by  God's  blessing,  of  gradually  e.vtending 
a  chain  of  schools  through  the  whole  district,  some  parts  of  which 
are,  however,  unfortunately  very  unhealthy.    I  had  myself  not 


E  GANGES   IN  BAIIAR 


much  opportunity,  nor  indeed  much  power  of  conversing  with  any 
of  them  ;  but  I  have  since  had  the  happiness  of  hearing  that  one 
old  soubahdar  said  that  he  and  his  men  had  a  desire  to  learn 
more  of  my  religion  because  I  was  not  proud  ;  there  certainly 
seem  fewer  obstacles  to  conversion  here  than  in  any  part  of  this 
country  which  I  have  ever  seen  or  heard  of. 

"  On  leaving  the  hills  of  the  Jungleterry  district,  the  flat  country 
of  Bahar  and  Allahabad,  as  far  as  Benares,  shows  a  vast  extent  of 
fertile,  cultivated,  and  populous  soil.  .  .  .  The  whole  scene,  in 
short,  is  changed  from  Polynesia  to  the  more  western  parts  of 
Asia  and  the  east  of  Europe,  and  I  could  fancy  myself  in  Persia, 
Syria,  or  Turkey,  to  which  the  increasing  number  of  Musalmans, 


202 


BISHOP  HEBER 


though  still  the  minority,  the  minarets,  and  the  less  dark  com- 
plexion of  the  people,  much  contribute.  .  .  .  But  though  this 
difference  exists  between  Bengal  and  Bahar,  Bahar  itself,  I  shortly 
afterwards  found,  was  in  many  respects  different  from  the  Doab, 
and  still  more  from  the  dominion  of  the  King  of  Oudh,  in  which  1 
now  am.  Almost  immediately  on  leaving  Allahabad,  I  was  struck 
with  the  appearance  of  the  men,  as  tall  and  muscular  as  the 
largest  stature  of  Europeans,  and  with  the  fields  of  wheat,  as 
almost  the  only  cultivation.  ...  I  was  tempted  too  to  exclaim, 

"  '  Bellum,  6  terra  hospita,  portas  : 
Bello  armantur  equi  ;  bellum  hasc  armenta  minantur. ' 

"  Since  that  time  my  life  has  been  that  of  a  Tartar  chief,  rather 
than  an  English  clergyman.  I  rise  by  three  in  the  morning,  and 
am  on  horseback  by  four,  for  the  sake  of  getting  the  march  over 
and  our  tents  comfortably  pitched  before  the  heat  of  the  day.  .  .  . 
I  have  then  a  few  hours  to  myself  till  dinner-time,  at  four,  after 
which  we  generally  stroll  about,  read  prayers,  and  send  everybody 
to  bod  by  eight  o'clock,  to  be  ready  for  the  next  day's  march. 

"  I  have  as  yet  said  nothing  of  my  professional  labours  (though 
in  this  respect  I  may  say  I  have  not  been  idle)  ;  very  few  Sundays 
have  elapsed  since  I  left  Calcutta  in  which  I  have  not  been  able 
to  collect  a  Christian  congregation,  and  not  many  on  which  I  have 
not  been  requested  to  administer  the  Sacrament.  I  have  already 
confirmed  above  300  persons,  besides  those  I  confirmed  before  I 
set  out ;  and  I  have  found,  almost  everywhere,  a  great  and  grow- 
ing anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  English  families  which  are  scattered 
through  this  vast  extent  of  country  both  to  obtain  a  more  regular 
and  stated  performance  of  Divine  Service  than,  in  the  present 
paucity  of  chaplains  and  missionaries,  can  be  afforded  to  them. 
1  have  found,  too,  abundant  reason  to  believe  that  the  standard 
of  morals  and  religion  is  rising  much  higher  among  them  than  it 
used  to  be,  and  that  the  Church  of  England,  her  ceremonies  and 
clergy,  are  daily  gaining  popularity.  We  are  not  here  an  old 
establishment,  acting  chiefly  on  the  defensive  ;  we  are  a  rising 
and  popular  sect,  and  among  the  candidates  for  Confirmation, 
many  of  whom  were  grown  up,  and  some  advanced  in  hfe,  there 
were  many  who  had  been  brought  up  among  Dissenters  or  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  who  confessed  that  a  few  years  back 
they  should  never  have  thought  it  possible  for  them  to  seek  the 
benediction  of  a  bishop. 

"With  regard  to  the  conversion  of  the  natives,  a  beginning 
has  been  made,  and  though  it  is  a  beginning  only,  I  think  it  a 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


203 


very  promising  one.  I  do  not  only  mean  that  wherever  our 
schools  are  established  they  gladly  send  their  children  to  them, 
though  this  alone  would  be  a  subject  of  great  thankfulness  to  God, 
but  of  direct  conversion  the  number  is  as  great  as  could  well  be  ex- 
pected, considering  that  it  is  only  within  the  last  five  years  that 
any  ordained  English  missionary  has  been  in  the  Presidency  of 
Bengal,  and  that  before  that  time  nothing  was  even  attempted  by 
any  members  of  our  Church,  except  Mr.  Martyn  and  Mr.  Corrie. 
Of  the  candidates  for  Confirmation  whom  I  mentioned  above, 
eighty  were  converted  heathens,  and  there  were  many  whose  dis- 
tant residences  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  attend,  and  many 
more  who  were  desirous  to  obtain  the  rite,  whom  their  pastors 
did  not  think  as  yet  sufficiently  instructed.  .  .  .  Great  part  of  our 
Liturgy  has  been  translated,  and  well  translated  too,  into  Hindo- 
stani,  and  I  thought  it  fortunate  that  the  Confirmation  service,  as 
well  as  the  Communion,  is  found  in  the  present  compendium. 
The  language  is  grave  and  sonorous,  and  as  its  turn  of  expression, 
like  that  of  all  other  Eastern  tongues,  is  Scriptural,  it  suits  ex- 
tremely well  the  majestic  simplicity  of  our  Prayer-Book.  With 
all  this  employment,  and  all  these  hopes  before  me,  you  will  easily 
believe  I  am  not  idle,  and  cannot  be  unhappy.  Yet  you  will  not, 
I  am  sure,  suspect  me  of  forgetting  all  I  have  left  behind  ;  and 
there  are  many  little  circumstances  of  almost  daily  occurrence 
which  give  occasion  to  very  sadly  pleasing  recollections. 

"  The  other  morning,  while  cautiously  trotting  before  daybreak 
over  a  wide,  waste,  plashy  common,  I  can  hardly  tell  you  how 
forcibly  my  fancy  carried  me  back  to  Hodnet  Heath,  to  my  schoolboy 
and  college  rides  towards  Watling  Street,  at  an  equally  early  hour, 
with  our  dear  brother  Tom,  and  all  the  long  series  of  past  pains 
and  pleasures.  On  another  occasion,  while  we  were  sitting  at  the 
tent-door  under  the  shade  of  a  noble  peepul-tree,  looking  out  with 
some  anxiety  over  the  wide  sultry  plain  for  the  rear  of  our  caravan, 
Lushington  called  out,  as  the  long  necks  reared  themselves  amid 
some  brushwood,  '  The  camels  are  coming,  oho  ! '  I  believe  he 
thought  from  my  silence  that  I  did  not  understand  the  allusion, 
but  in  fact  I  could  not  answer.  He  had  sent  me  to  Moreton 
drawing-room  and  my  dear  Mary's  pianoforte,  and  I  was,  I  believe, 
a  long  time  in  getting  back  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Ganges 
and  Jumna.  I  have  written  a  very  long  letter,  but  I  do  not  think 
I  shall  have  tired  either  of  you.  I  meant  to  have  enclosed  one  to 
my  mother,  but  I  really  have  no  time  now,  and  will  write  to  her 
at  a  more  advanced  stage  of  my  journey,  and  when  I  have  some- 
thing more  to  say.    I  know  you  will  show  her  this  letter,  giving 


204  BISHOP  HEBER 

my  best  love  to  her  and  to  Heber,  and  my  blessing  to  your  little 
Tom.  I  can  hardly  say  how  often  and  how  much  I  long  to  see 
you  all,  and  how  constantly  you  are  all  in  my  thoughts  and 
prayers. 

"  Adieu,  dear  Charles  and  Mary.  —  Ever  your  afifectionate 
brother,  Reginald  Calcutta." 

As  Bishop  Heber  continued  his  tour  up  the  Ganges  from 
Bhagulpoor  with  Archdeacon  Corrie,  he  met  at  Monghyr  the 
Baptist  preacher  Leslie,  afterwards  the  friend  of  Sir  Donald 
M'Leod  and  General  Havelock,  whom,  with  many  others  from 
Agra    to    Calcutta,   he   brought  to  Christ.      Heber  justly 


THE  EKKA  CONVEYANCE,  MONGHYR 

describes  him  as  "  a  very  mild,  modest  person,"  and  the 
proselytes  who  attended  the  Episcopal  service  as  "probably 
brought  over  by  the  Baptist  missionaries.  Mr.  Leslie  and  the 
greater  part  of  his  flock  attended,  but  did  not  stay  the  Sacra- 
ment." At  Patna  he  conversed  much  in  French  with  Padre 
Giulio  Cesare,  the  Italian  priest  of  Henry  Martyn's  Journals, 
and  delighted  in  the  water-colour  sketches  of  Sir  Charles 
D'Oyley,  "the  best  gentleman  artist  I  ever  met  with."  Dina- 
poor  society  he  found  no  better  than  Martyn  had  done,  partly 
owing  to  "  the  exceeding  bad  conduct  of  the  late  chaplain." 
Chuprah,  on  the  north  bank,  reminded  him  of  Sir  Eyre  Coote's 
defeat  of  M.  Law.  At  Buxar,  having  left  Corrie  behind  a 
little,  he  stumbled  on  Kureem  Masse'h  (the  mercy  of  Messiah), 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  205 

the  catechist  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  who,  "with  a 
not  unpleasing  vanity,"  hung  up  above  his  desk  the  sword  and 
sash  he  had  worn  when  a  non-commissioned  officer  and 
Musahiian  in  the  Company's  army.  At  Ghazipoor  his  artistic 
instinct  and  Christian  zeal  alike  were  outraged  by  the  tomb  of 
Lord  Cornwallis.  "  It  is  vexatious  to  think  that  a  very  hand- 
some church  might  have  been  built,  and  a  handsome  marble 
monument  placed  in  its  interior  for  a  little  more  money." 

At  a  point  on  the  Ganges,  twenty-four  miles  below  Benares,  the 
Bishop  left  the  boats  for  his  first  palanquin  journey.    He  had 


GRANARY  UUILT  AT  I'ATNA  AFTER  THE  GREAT  FAMINE  OF  1777 

spent  nearly  three  months  on  the  voyage  from  Calcutta  when, 
on  3rd  September  1824,  he  became  the  guest,  at  Sikraul,  the 
cantonment  of  Benares,  of  Mr.  Brooke,  who  had  been  for  fifty- 
six  years  a  servant  of  the  Company.  The  magistrate  of  the 
city  and  district  was  Norman  Macleod,  whom  he  remembered 
as  one  of  his  juniors  at  Oxford,  and  "a  great  friend  of  Wilson, 
since  well  known  as  author  of  the  City  of  the  Plague.''  What 
Heber's  tour  proved  to  be,  not  only  to  the  residents  of  Benares, 
but  to  every  station  of  the  Christian  dispersion  in  India  and 
Ceylon  which  he  visited,  Norman  Macleod  tells  : — 

"  Of  all  the  pleasing  impressions  which  your  Lordship  has  left 
to  commemorate  your  brief  sojourn  amongst  us,  I  will  not  here 


2o6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


presume  to  speak  ;  but  I  may  hope  your  Lordship  will  not  be 
displeased  with  the  brief  assurance  that  your  visit  has  been  pro- 
ductive of  much  good  in  this  community,  in  points  essentially 
connected  with  those  high  and  sacred  interests  which  are  so 
peculiarly  under  your  charge,  and  ever  so  near  to  all  the  move- 
ments of  your  heart.  For  the  mention  of  my  own  individual 
share  in  the  grateful  impressions  your  Lordship  has  diffused 
among  us,  I  will  hope  to  have  found  an  admissible  excuse  with 
your  Lordship,  while  I  ascribe  some  portion  of  it  to  associations 


HEBER  ON  THE  GANGES 


awakened  by  your  presence,  recalling  to  my  mind  the  days  of 
other  times,  the  scenes  of  my  youth,  and  of  my  native  land  ;  and 
many  a  recollection  of  no  light  or  ordinary  interest,  to  one  who 
has  wandered  so  far  and  so  long  from  the  duke  donmm  of  early 
life.  Your  Lordship  will  readily  conceive  how  this  might  be. 
And  thus  it  will  hardly  seem  strange  to  you  that  the  strains  of 
pious  and  holy  instruction,  which  fixed  so  impressive  a  record  ol 
our  first  visitation  by  a  Protestant  prelate  on  the  minds  of  us  all, 
should  have  spoken  with  peculiar  emphasis  to  the  feelings  of  one 
who,  after  many  a  year  of  toil  and  exile  in  a  foreign  clime,  recog- 
nised, in  the  accents  which  now  preached  the  Word  of  the  Living 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  207 


God  amid  the  favourite  abodes  of  heathen  idolatry,  that  selfsame 
voice  which,  in  his  days  of  youthful  enthusiasm  and  ardent  un- 
damped fancy,  had  poured  on  his  delighted  ear  the  lay  that  sang 
the  sacred  theme  of  the  Redeemer's  land,  amid  the  long-loved 
haunts  of  his  aliiia  i/iatcr^  amid  the  venerated  temples  of  the 
religion  of  our  fathers." 

At  Benares,  Bishop  Heber  found  Mr.  Morris,  the  zealous 
representative  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  Mr. 
Frazer,  the  "  extremely  popular  and  exemplary "  chaplain. 


Here  he  had  a  busy  and  happy  Sunday,  which  may  be  taken 
as  representative  of  every  one  that  he  spent  in  the  East.  At 
six  in  the  morning  he  took  part  in  the  native  Christian  service, 
publicly  using  the  Hindostani  language  for  the  first  time.  He 
held  a  confirmation  service.  He  then  consecrated  the  Com- 
pany's new  church.  In  the  evening  he  preached  an  English 
sermon  to  a  crowded  congregation,  and  administered  the  Lord's 
Supper  to  sixty  communicants,  using  Hindostani  to  the  fourteen 
who  were  natives,  and  had  been  confirmed  in  the  morning. 
Next  morning  saw  him  consecrate  the  cemetery,  and  then 
delighting  in  the  Church  Missionary  Society's  school,  endowed 
by  Jay  Narain  Ghosal  of  Calcutta  under  remarkable  circum- 


2o8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


stances,  and  ever  since  a  prosperous  Christian  school  bearing  his 
name.i 

One  of  these  fourteen  native  Christians  had  a  matrimonial 
history  of  peculiar  interest,  which  Heber  himself  must  tell,  for 
it  illustrates  unconsciously  his  own  far-seeing  wisdom,  and  the 
need  of  such  a  remedy  as  Sir  Henry  Maine  applied  in  Act 
xxi.  of  1866. 

"The  case  of  one  of  these  men  had  occasioned  me  some 
perplexity  the  day  before,  when  Mr.  Morris  stated  it  to  me  ;  but  I 
had  now  made  up  my  mind.  He  was  a  convert  of  Mr.  Corrie's, 
and  six  years  ago  married  a  woman  who  then  professed  herself  a 
Christian,  but  soon  afterwards  ran  away  from  him  and  turned 
Miisalman,  in  which  profession  she  was  now  living  widi  another 
man.  The  husband  had  applied  to  the  magistrate  to  recover  her, 
but,  on  the  woman  declaring  that  she  was  no  Christian,  and  did 
not  choose  to  be  the  wife  of  one,  he  said  he  could  not  compel  her. 
The  husband,  in  consequence,  about  two  years  ago,  applied  to 
Mr.  Frazer  to  marry  him  to  another  woman.  Mr.  Frazer  declined 
doing  so,  as  no  divorce  had  taken  place,  on  which  he  took  the 
woman  without  marriage,  and  had  now  two  children  by  her.  For 
this  he  had  been  repelled  from  the  communion  by  Mr.  Morris, 
but  still  continued  to  frequent  the  church,  and  was  now  very 
anxious  for  confirmation.    After  some  thought,  I  came  to  the  con- 


1  Mr.  Hough,  in  vol.  v.  of  his  History  of  Christianity  in  India,  tells  the 
story  of  this  early  representative  of  the  large  class  of  "almost  Christian" 
Hindoos  and  Musalmans  in  every  grade  of  society  in  India,  from  the  highest. 
Jay  Narain  Ghosal,  having  made  a  fortune  in  the  English  service  in  Bengal, 
retired  to  the  idol  shrines  of  Benares  to  end  his  days.  When  ill,  he  applied 
for  medicine  to  an  English  merchant,  Mr.  \\'heatley,  who  also  gave  him  a  copy 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  sold  to  him  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  in  ex- 
plaining both  of  which  he  passed  much  time  with  him.  With  the  medicine 
he  told  the  patient  to  pray  to  the  God  revealed  in  the  books.  Jay  Narain  re- 
covered, and  asked  what  he  could  do  for  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
answer  was — found  a  school  in  which  your  countrymen  may  be  taught  the 
Name  and  the  Way,  in  English  and  Persian,  Bengali  and  Hindi.  Wheatley 
having  failed  in  business,  became  the  first  teacher,  and  Jay  Narain  and  his 
family  the  first  pupils.  On  the  good  teacher's  death  and  the  refusal  of 
Government  to  superintend  a  Christian  school,  Corrie  advised  him  to  try 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  Perseveringly  did  Jay  Narain  pray 
that  Corrie  himself  might  be  sent  as  chaplain  to  Benares,  and  when  this 
happened  all  was  well.  The  Church  Missionary  Society  accepted  the  endow- 
ment of  40,000  rupees,  besides  the  school  premises  and  house  for  two  mission- 
aries, in  the  year  1818  ;  and  when  the  founder  died,  a  Christian,  but  not 
baptized,  his  son  followed  in  his  steps.  J.ay  Narain's  school  is  under  their 
missionary,  Rev.  B.  Davis,  at  present. 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS  209 


elusion  that  the  man  should  be  reproved  for  the  precipitancy  with 
which  he  had  formed  his  first  connection,  and  the  scandal  which 
he  had  since  occasioned,  but  that  he  might  be  admitted  both 
to  confirmation  and  the  communion,  and  might  be  married  to 
the  woman  who  now  held  the  place  of  a  wife  to  him.  It  seemed 
a  case  to  which  St.  Paul's  rule  applied,  that  if  an  unbelieving 
husband  or  wife  chose  to  depart,  on  religious  grounds,  from  their 
believing  partner,  this  latter  was,  in  consequence,  free.  At  all 
events,  as  the  runaway  woman  was,  if  a  wife,  living  in  open  adul- 
tery, it  was  plain  that  he  had  a  right  to  'put  her  away.'  Though 
the  laws  of  the  country  provided  him  no  remedy,  yet,  as  a  matter 
of  conscience,  this  right  might  be  fitly  determined  on  by  his 
religious  guides  ;  and  I  conceived  myself  warranted  to  declare 
him  divorced  and  at  liberty  to  marry  again.  My  determination, 
I  found,  gave  great  satisfaction  to  Mr.  Frazer  and  Mr.  Morris, 
both  of  whom  said  that  without  some  such  permission  the  state 
of  new  converts  would  be  often  very  hard,  and  that  the  usual 
remedies  supplied  by  the  canon  law  would  be,  to  men  in  such 
circumstances,  utterly  unattainable.  .  .  . 

"  '  God,'  I  yet  hope  and  believe,  in  the  midst  of  the  awful  and 
besotted  darkness  which  surrounds  me,  and  of  which,  as  well  as 
its  miserable  consequences,  I  am  now  more  sensible  than  ever, 
'  God  may  have  much  people  in  this  city  ! ' " 

At  Chunar,  Heber  confirmed  more  than  a  hundred  in  the 
large  church,  Corrie  reporting  "we  beheld  more  than  had 
previously  been  told  us,"  Bowley  and  Greenwood  being  the 
missionaries.  There  was  found  Sir  G.  Martindell,  commanding 
the  division,  a  fine  old  soldier,  with  an  experience  scarcely 
shorter  than  that  of  Mr.  Brooke.  Returning  to  his  boats, 
which  were  finally  dismissed  at  Allahabad,  Heber  enjoyed  for 
the  last  time  the  quiet  of  the  great  river  and  the  daily  walks 
on  its  banks.  His  companion,  Mr.  James  Lushington,  who 
discharged  the  duties  of  chancellor  of  the  diocese  for  a  time, 
thus,  in  a  journal  long  after  made  public  by  his  mother,  pictures 
the  impression  made  by  Reginald  Heber : — 

"  September  1824. 

"  Hume  says  that  admiration  and  acquaintance  are  incom- 
patible towards  any  human  being  ;  but  the  more  I  know  of  the 
Bishop  the  more  I  esteem  and  revere  him, 

' '  '  cujus  amor  lantum  mihi  crescit  in  horas 
Quantum  vere  novo  viridis  se  surrigit  alnus.' 
P 


210 


BISHOP  HEBER 


He  seems  born  to  conciliate  all  parties,  and  to  overcome  what  has 
before  appeared  impossible.  Most  great  talkers  are  sometimes 
guilty  of  talking  absurdities  ;  but,  though  scarcely  an  hour  silent 
during  the  day,  I  have  never  heard  him  utter  a  word  which  I 
could  wish  recalled." 

"  FUTTEHPOOR. 

"  In  coming  through  a  brook  of  water  running  across  the  road, 
the  Bishop's  horse  thought  proper  to  lie  down  and  give  him  a  roll ; 
with  his  usual  kindness,  instead  of  kicking  him  till  he  got  up 
again,  he  only  patted  him,  and  said,  '  he  was  a  nice  fellow.' " 

To  that  civilian's  cousin,  Mr.  Charles  Lushington,  Heber, 
writing  of  the  considerable  number  of  native  and  the  large 
number  of  European  Christians  independent  of  the  army, 


ROUMI  DUHWAZA  AND  IMAMBABA,  LLCKNOW 


exclaimed,  "  Not  Westmoreland,  before  the  battle  of  Agincourt, 
wished  with  greater  earnestness  for  '  more  men  from  England  ' 
than  I  do."  "  I  am  often  obliged  to  be  bishop,  chaplain,  and 
curate  all  in  one  ;  and  in  India,  though  there  may  be  pluralities, 
there  is  verily  no  sinecure."  That  is  significant  language  from  a 
man  who,  all  his  life,  worked  harder  than  most  two  men  together. 
Already  he  had  delayed  longer  on  his  tour  than  he  had  planned. 
Hurrying  on  to  Allahabad,  where,  as  there  was  no  chaplain, 
he  promised  the  residents  a  Church  missionar)',  and  then  to 
Cawnpore,  without  rest,  he  passed  into  the  then  independent 
kingdom  of  Oudh,  and  reached  Lucknow  under  an  escort  sent 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


211 


by  Mr.  Ricketts,  the  Resident.  During  ten  days  in  that 
Sheea'h  Musalman  city  he  was  treated  by  the  King  with  all 
honour,  for  which  the  Governor-General  afterwards  officially 
thanked  his  Majesty,  and  he  sat  for  his  portrait  four  times  to 
Mr.  Home  i —  "  A  very  good  artist  indeed  for  a  king  of  Oudh 
to  have  got  hold  of ;  he  is  a  quiet,  gentlemanly  old  man, 
brother  of  the  celebrated  surgeon  in  London.  Mr.  Home 
would  have  been  a  distinguished  painter  had  he  remained  in 
Europe."  He  addressed  a  valuable  letter  to  Lord  Amherst 
as  to  the  state  of  Oudh,  and  also  of  the  Company's  administra- 
tion so  far.  In  this  passage,  as  in  many  others  in  his  letters, 
he  shows  the  political  acuteness  and  impartiality  of  one  who 
had  travelled  far  and  observed  much  : — • 

"  Through  the  Company's  territories  what  have  perhaps  struck 
me  most  forcibly  are  the  great  moderation  and  general  ability 
with  which  the  different  civil  functionaries  apparently  perform 
their  arduous  duties,  and  the  uniform  good  order  and  obedience 
to  the  laws  which  are  enforced  through  so  vast  a  tract  of  country, 
amid  a  warlike,  an  armed,  and,  I  do  not  think,  a  very  well-affected 
population.  The  unfavourable  circumstances  appear  to  be  the 
total  want  of  honourable  employment  for  the  energies  and  ambi- 
tion of  the  higher  rank  of  natives,  and  the  extreme  numerical  in- 
sufficiency of  the  establishment  allowed  by  the  Company  for  the 
administration  of  justice,  the  collection  of  revenue,  and,  I  am 
almost  tempted  to  say,  the  permanent  security  and  internal 
defence  of  their  empire. 

"  On  the  whole  I  have  hitherto  been  greatly  pleased  with  my 
journey,  so  much  so  that  I  have  frequently  regretted  the  pressure 
of  public  business,  which  seems  to  render  it  unlikely  that  your 
Lordship  will  be  enabled  to  undertake  a  similar  tour,  through  pro- 
vinces of  which,  to  judge  by  my  own  experience,  it  is  almost  as 
difficult  to  obtain  an  accurate  idea  in  Calcutta  as  in  London.  It 
is  not  merely  on  account  of  the  personal  gratification  and  amuse- 
ment which  you  would  derive  from  such  a  journey,  for  I  know 
that,  let  a  governor  of  India  go  where  he  will,  it  is  probably  that 
care  will  climb  the  Soonamooky  2  and  sit  behind  the  howdah.  Nor 


'  Home  painted  William  Carey's  portrait.  In  1794  he  published  his  Select 
Views  in  Mysore,  the  country  of  Tippoo  Sultan,  from  drawings  taken  on  the 
spot,  with  historical  descriptions  (published  by  Mr.  Bowyer). 

^  The  name  of  the  Governor-General's  pinnace. 


212 


BISHOP  HEBER 


is  it  only  for  the  sake  of  the  renewed  health  which  both  yourself 
and  your  family  would  inhale  from  the  cool  breezes  of  the  Ganges 
and  the  fine  frosty  mornings  which  I  am  now  enjoying.  But  there 
seems  so  great  an  advantage  in  producing  occasionally  to  this 
people,  in  a  visible  and  popular  shape,  the  power  and  person  by 
whom  they  are  held  in  subjection  ;  so  many  valuable  objects  might 
be  attained  by  an  intercourse  and  acquaintance  between  the  chief 
governor,  his  agents,  and  his  subjects,  and  from  the  other  oppor- 
tunities of  acquiring  knowledge  and  doing  good,  of  which  no  man 
is  likely  to  make  a  better  use  than  your  Lordship,  that  I  most  fer- 
vently wish  you  a  speedy  triumph  over  the  Burmans,  if  it  were 
only  for  the  chance  that  your  Lordship  may  thus  be  enabled  to 
ascend  the  Ganges,  and  inspect  some  of  the  most  important  and 
interesting  parts  of  Northern  India." 

The  Bishop  had  large  congregations,  both  at  the  can- 
tonments and  Residency,  on  two  successive  Sundays.  "  The 
Hindostani  reads  well  in  prayer,  particularly  those  words 
which  are  derived  from  the  Arabic,"  he  wrote.  "  I  like  the 
sound  of 

"  'Aram  Ullahi  jo  sare  fahemon  se  bahur  hue' — '■  the  peace  oj 
God,'  etc.  ;  and  of  '  Khoda  Khader,  Mutluk,  jo  Bap  our  Beta  our 
Ruk  Kodus  hue '  — '  God  victorious,  Mighty,  the  Father,  Son, 
and  No/y  Ghost.'  I  had  also  twelve  candidates  for  confirmation, 
and  administered  the  Sacrament  to  twenty-five  persons,  and  found 
the  people  extremely  anxious  to  assemble  for  public  worship. 
The  first  Sunday  I  preached,  indeed,  three  times,  and  twice  the 
second,  besides  giving  two  confirmation  lectures  on  the  Friday 
and  Saturday,  and  some  other  occasional  duty.  Mr.  Ricketts  is 
himself  in  the  habit  of  acting  as  chaplain  at  the  Residency  every 
Sunday  ;  but  the  people  in  the  king's  employ,  and  the  other 
Christian  inhabitants,  complain  that  Government  are  very  jealous 
of  their  attending  at  that  place,  and  they  express  great  an.xiety  to 
establish  a  similar  meeting  for  devotional  purposes  among  them- 
selves." 

After  ten  days  of  varied  duty  and  court  experiences, 
described  in  his  Journal  in  a  pleasant  chapter,  he  fell  sick 
on  the  first  stage  from  that  capital  to  Bareilly,  and  found  him- 
self alone  without  physician  or  friend.  He  was  seized  by  an 
aggravated  form  of  the  influenza  epidemic,  which  prevailed  all 
over  Northern  India  that  year.    At  Sandi,  in  the  present  district 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


213 


of  Hardoi,  he  offered  up  this  prayer  of  thanksgiving  for 
recovery : — 

"  I  thank  Thee,  O  Lord,  that  Thou  hast  heard  my  prayer  and 
helped  me  in  the  needful  time  of  trouble  ;  that  Thou  hast  de- 
livered me  from  sharp  sickness  and  great  apparent  danger,  when 
I  had  no  skill  to  heal  myself,  and  when  no  human  skill  was  near 
to  save  me.  I  thank  Thee  for  the  support  which  Thou  gavest  me 
in  my  hour  of  trial  ;  that  Thou  didst  not  let  my  sins  to  triumph 
over  me,  neither  mine  iniquities  to  sink  me  in  despair.  I  thank 
Thee  for  the  many  comforts  with  which  Thy  mercy  surrounded 
me  ;  for  the  accommodations  of  wealth,  the  security  of  guards, 
the  attendance  and  fidelity  of  servants,  the  advantage  of  medicine 
and  natural  means  of  cure,  the  unclouded  use  of  my  reason,  and 
the  holy  and  prevailing  prayers  which  my  absent  friends  offered 
up  for  me  !  But  above  all  I  thank  Thee  for  the  knowledge  of  my 
own  weakness,  and  of  Thy  great  goodness  and  power,  beseeching 
Thee  that  the  recollection  of  these  days  may  not  vanish  like  a 
morning  dream,  but  that  the  resolutions  which  I  have  formed 
may  be  sealed  with  Thy  grace,  and  the  life  which  Thou  hast 
spared  may  be  spent  hereafter  in  Thy  service  ;  that  my  past  sins 
may  be  forgiven  and  forsaken,  and  my  future  days  may  be  em- 
ployed in  serving  and  pleasing  Thee,  through  Thy  dear  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour.  Amen." 

A  fortnight  later  he  wrote  of  the  Dravidian  Mission  to 
Principal  Mill : — 

"  I  feel  greatly  obliged  and  gratified  by  your  prompt  acqui- 
escence in,  and  execution  of,  my  views  with  regard  to  the  Paharee 
tribes,  and  I  pray  God  that  we  may  be  blessed  by  seeing  such  a 
primitive  establishment  as  you  speak  of  among  them.  My  main 
anxiety,  in  the  first  instance,  was  to  get  the  start  of  our  competitors, 
and  fix  an  Episcopal  clergyman  in  immediate  connection  with,  and 
dependence  on.  Bishop's  College,  in  a  spot,  the  cultivation  of 
which  may  eventually  place  that  College  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
nected chain  of  missions  as  extensive,  and  in  a  purer  faith,  than 
the  Jesuit  '  Reductions  '  of  Paraguay." 

He  had  wider  views  than  even  these,  as  every  Christian 
soul  loyal  to  the  King  must  have.  At  Bareilly,  where  his  host, 
Mr.  Hawkins,  the  judge,  gave  him  the  ripe  experience  of  forty- 
two  years'  continuous  service,  he  determined  to  visit  the  hill 


214 


BISHOP  HEBER 


station  of  Almora,  the  Christians  of  which  had  never  seen  a 
clergyman  there.  "  I  was  very  anxious  not  only  to  give  a 
Sunday  to  its  secluded  flock,  but  to  ascertain  what  facilities 
existed  ...  for  eventually  spreading  the  Gospel  among  these 
mountaineers,  and  beyond  them  into  Tibet  and  Tartary.  ...  If 
God  spare  me  life  and  opportunities,  I  yet  hope  to  see  Chris- 
tianity revived,  through  this  channel,  in  countries  where,  under 
a  corrupted  form  indeed,  it  is  said  to  have  once  flourished 
widely  through  the  labours  of  the  Nestorians."  Here  again 
Heber  only  anticipated  by  a  generation  or  two  what  has  been 
accomplished.  All  he  dreamed  of  for  the  elevation  of  the 
people,  if  not  in  the  entrance  of  Christianity  into  Central  Asia 
by  this  route,  was  accomplished  by  the  late  Commissioner,  Sir 
Henry  Ramsay,  K.C.B.,  "the  king  of  Kumaon,"  a  man  after 
his  own  heart,  and  by  the  London  and  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Missionary  Societies. 

Contemplating  such  a  journey  in  those  days  through  the 
most  unprotected  part  of  Rohilcund,  Delhi,  Rajpootana,  and 
the  Bheel  country  to  Baroda  and  Bombay,  Reginald  Heber 
wrote  this  solemn  and  loving  communication,  to  be  given  "  to 
my  dear  wife,  in  case  of  my  death." 

"Shahee,  Rohilcund,  i8//;  Novcniler  1S24. 
"  As  I  am  engaged  in  a  journey  in  which  there  is,  I  find,  a 
probability  of  more  and  greater  dangers  than  I  anticipated,  I  write 
these  few  lines  to  my  dear  wife,  to  assure  her  that,  next  to  the 
welfare  of  my  immortal  soul  (which  I  commit,  in  humble  hope,  to 
the  undeserved  mercies  of  my  God  and  Lord  Jesus  Christ),  the 
thought  of  her  and  of  my  beloved  children  is,  at  this  moment, 
nearest  my  heart,  and  my  most  earnest  prayers  are  offered  for 
her  and  their  happiness  and  holiness,  here  and  hereafter.  Should 
I  meet  my  death  in  the  course  of  the  present  journey,  it  is  my 
request  to  her  to  be  comforted  concerning  me,  and  to  bear  my 
loss  patiently,  and  to  trust  in  the  Almighty  to  raise  up  friends, 
and  give  food  and  clothing  to  herself  and  her  children.  It  is  also 
my  request  that  she  would  transmit  my  affectionate  love  and  the 
assurance  of  my  prayers  to  my  dear  mother  and  to  my  father-in- 
law,  to  Mrs.  Yonge,  my  uncle  and  aunt  Allanson,  my  beloved 
brother  and  sister,  and  all  with  whom  I  am  connected  by  blood 
or  marriage,  particularly  Harriet  Douglas  and  Charlotte  Shipley. 
I  beg  her  to  transmit  the  same  assurance  of  my  continued  affec- 


TO  DACCA  AND  THE  HIMALAYAS 


215 


tion  and  prayers  to  my  dear  friend  Charlotte  Dod,  also  to  my  dear 
friends  Thornton,  C.  Williams  Wynn,  Wilmot,  and  Davenport. 

"  1  am  not  aware  of  any  advantageous  alteration  which  I  could 
make  in  the  will  which  I  left  at  Calcutta,  and  I  am  too  poor  to 
leave  legacies.  I  will,  therefore,  only  send  my  blessing  to  my 
dear  wife  and  children,  and  to  the  valuable  relations  and  friends 
whom  I  have  enumerated,  begging  them  to  fear  and  love  God 
above  all  things,  and  so  to  endeavour  to  serve  Him,  as  that, 
through  the  worthiness  and  compassion  of  His  Son,  in  whom  only 
I  trust,  we  may  meet  in  a  happy  eternity.  Amen  !  Amen  !  May 
God  hear  my  prayers  for  myself  and  them,  for  the  sake  of  our 
blessed  Saviour !  Reginald  Calcutta." 


CHAPTER  X 


ALMORA   TO  BOMBAY 
1824-1825 

Two  months  before  the  crowning  victory  of  Waterloo,  the 
Goorkha  war  closed  with  the  cession  of  the  fort  of  Almora  and 
the  provinces  of  Kumaon  and  Garhwal.  A  hill  country  of  the 
size  of  Switzerland,  but  even  more  beautiful,  and  a  million  of 
trusty  highlanders  were  added  to  the  British  Empire.  Farther 
west,  in  the  lower  range  of  the  Himalayas,  part  of  Simla  also 
was  annexed.  From  Nipal  on  the  east  to  Kashmir  on  the 
north-west,  a  line  of  cool  hill  country  had  thus  been  opened 
up  to  European  settlement  and  for  sanitary  retreat  just  before 
Bishop  Heber's  arrival  in  the  country.  Lieutenant  Kennedy 
built  the  first  permanent  house  in  Simla  in  1 8 1 9,  and  ten  years 
afterwards  Lord  Amherst  spent  the  hot  season  there,  the  first 
of  the  series  of  Governor-Generals  and  Viceroys  who  have 
gradually  made  it  the  summer  capital  of  British  India.  Almora, 
however,  which  has  since  become  the  centre  of  such  civil  and 
military  sanitaria  for  the  North-Western  Provinces  as  Naini-Tal, 
Ranikhet  and  Chowbuttia,  Mussooree  and  Landhaur,  seemed 
likely  to  outstrip  Simla  at  the  first.  Mr.  Adam,  the  very  able 
and  very  conservative  Member  of  Council,  who  acted  as 
Governor-General  before  Lord  Amherst's  arrival,  had  a  house 
at  Almora,  which  he  placed  at  the  service  of  the  Bishop. 

There  Heber  found  himself,  after  the  toils  and  the  exposure 
of  the  plains,  during  seven  months  of  the  hot  and  rainy  seasons 
of  1824,  in  the  shadow  of  thirty  snowy  peaks,  all  much  loftier 
than  Mont  Blanc,  and  three  of  them  rising  to  twenty-six  thousand 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


217 


feet.  There  he  was  in  the  centre  of  the  land  of  the  great  rivers 
which  form  the  Ganges  system,  near  the  sources  of  the  glacier- 
born  streams,  up  which  thousands  of  Hindoos  daily  toil  from 
the  parched  plains  below  seeking  for  God,  if  haply  they  may 
find  Him,  in  the  ice-bound  solitudes,  and  there  wash  the  con- 
science clean. 

"  i6th  November  1824. 

"  Though  an  important  station,  Almora  has  never  been  visited 
by  any  clergyman  ;  and  I  was  very  anxious  not  only  to  give  a 
Sunday  to  its  secluded  flock,  but  to  ascertain  what  facilities  existed 
for  obtaining  for  them  the  occasional  visits,  at  least,  of  a  minister 
of  religion,  and  for  eventually  spreading  the  Gospel  among  these 
mountaineers,  and  beyond  them  into  Tibet  and  Tartary.  The 
former  of  these  objects  I  have  good  hopes  of  being  able  to 
accomplish  ;  a  residence  in  these  cold  and  bracing  regions  may,  in 
many  cases,  do  as  much  good  to  chaplains  and  missionaries, 
exhausted  by  the  heat  of  the  plains,  as  a  voyage  to  Europe 
would  do ;  and  good  men  may  be  well  employed  here  who  are 
unequal  to  exertion  in  other  parts  of  our  Eastern  empire.  To  the 
second  there  are  many  obstacles,  not  likely,  as  yet,  to  be  over- 
come ;  and  in  encountering  which  considerable  prudence  and 
moderation  will  be  necessary.  But  there  are  facilities  and 
encouragements  also,  which  I  did  not  expect  to  find  ;  and  if  God 
spare  me  life  and  opportunities,  I  yet  hope  to  see  Christianity 
revived,  through  this  channel,  in  countries  where,  under  a  corrupted 
form  indeed,  it  is  said  to  have  once  flourished  widely  through  the 
labours  of  the  Nestorians. 

".  .  .  Captain  Satchwell,  the  acting  commissary  -  general  01 
the  district,  promised  me  the  use  of  some  mules,  which  Govern- 
ment were  sending  up  to  Kumaon  for  the  public  service  there. 
Mr.  Boulderson,  the  collector,  offered  me  the  loan  of  an  able  and 
experienced  pony  ;  and  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Traill,  the 
commissioner  for  the  affairs  of  the  hill  countries,  offering  me  every 
assistance  in  the  last  four  mountain  stages." 

"  19//;  November. 

"  On  leaving  our  encampment  we  forded  the  river  Bhagool. 
At  last,  soon  after  the  sun  rose,  and  just  as  we  had  reached  a 
small  rising  ground,  the  mist  rolled  away,  and  showed  us  again 
the  Himalaya,  distinct  and  dark,  with  the  glorious  icy  mountains, 
towering  in  a  clear  blue  sky,  above  the  nearer  range.  There  were 
four  of  these,  the  names  of  three  of  which  Mr.  Boulderson  knew. 


2l8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Bhadrinath,  Kedarnath,  and  the  peak  above  the  source  of  the 
Ganges,  the  Mem  of  Hindoo  fable.  The  fourth,  to  the  extreme 
right,  he  did  not  know.  .  .  .  That  we  saw  the  snowy  peaks  at 
all,  considering  their'  distance,  and  that  mountains  twice  as  high 
as  Snowdon  intervened,  is  wonderful.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
I  wished  for  my  wife  to  share  the  sight  with  me.  .  .  . 

".  .  .  The  Chvydian  chain,  indeed,  is  not  crowned  by  such 
noble  pinnacles  as  Bhadrinath  and  Gangotri,  but  I  could  not  help 
feeling  now,  and  I  felt  it  still  more  when  I  began  to  attempt  to 
commit  the  prospect  to  paper,  that  the  awe  and  wonder  which  I 
experienced  were  of  a  very  complex  character,  and  greatly  detached 
from  the  simple  act  of  vision.  The  eye  is,  by  itself,  and  without 
some  objects  to  form  a  comparison,  unable  to  judge  of  such  heights 
at  such  a  distance.  Carneth  Llewellyn  and  Snowdon,  at  certain 
times  in  the  year,  make  really  as  good  a  picture  as  the  mountains 
now  before  me  ;  and  the  reason  that  I  am  so  much  more  impressed 
with  the  present  view  is  partly  the  mysterious  idea  of  awful  and 
inaccessible  remoteness  attached  to  the  Indian  Caucasus,  the 
centre  of  earth, 

"  '  Its  Altar,  and  its  Cradle,  and  its  Throne'  ; 

and  still  more  the  knowledge  derived  from  books,  that  the  objects 
now  before  me  are  really  among  the  greatest  earthly  works  of  the 
Almighty  Creator's  hands, — the  highest  spots  below  the  moon — 
and  out-topping,  by  many  hundred  feet,  the  summit  of  Cotopaxi 
and  Chimborazo." 

The  man — the  young  man — that  was  always  under  the 
clergyman,  and  gave  him  much  of  his  charm  and  useful- 
ness, was  not  sorry  when  a  Raja  on  the  Terai  route  reported 
a  tiger. 

".  .  .  He  mentioned,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  that  there 
was  a  tiger  in  an  adjoining  tope,  which  had  done  a  good  deal  of 
mischief,  that  he  should  have  gone  after  it  himself  had  he  not  been 
ill,  and  had  he  not  thought  that  it  would  be  a  fine  diversion  for 
Mr.  Boulderson  and  me.  I  told  him  I  was  no  sportsman,  but  Mr. 
Boulderson's  eyes  sparkled  at  the  name  of  tiger,  and  he  expressed 
great  anxiety  to  beat  up  his  quarters  in  the  afternoon.  Under 
such  circumstances  I  did  not  like  to  deprive  him  of  his  sport,  as 
he  would  not  leave  me  by  myself,  and  went,  though  with  no 
intention  of  being  more  than  a  spectator.  Mr.  Boulderson,  how- 
ever, advised  me  to  load  my  pistols  for  the  sake  of  defence,  and 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


219 


lent  me  a  very  fine  double-barrelled  gun  for  the  same  purpose. 
We  set  out  a  little  after  three  on  our  elephants,  with  a  servant 
behind  each  howda.  .  .  .  The  Raja  was  on  a  little  female  elephant, 
hardly  bigger  than  the  Durham  ox,  and  almost  as  shaggy  as  a 
poodle.  She  was  a  native  of  the  neighbouring  wood,  where  they 
are  generally,  though  not  always,  of  a  smaller  size  than  those  of 
Bengal  and  Chittagong.  He  sat  in  a  low  howda,  with  two  or 
three  guns  ranged  beside  him  ready  for  action.  Mr.  Boulderson 
had  also  a  formidable  apparatus  of  muskets  and  fowling-pieces 
projecting  over  his  mahout's  head.  We  rode  about  two  miles, 
across  a  plain  covered  with  long  jungle-grass,  which  very  much 
put  me  in  mind  of  the  country  near  the  Cuban.  Quails  and  wild 
fowl  rose  in  great  numbers,  and  beautiful  antelopes  were  seen 
scudding  away  in  all  directions.  With  them  our  party  had  no 
quarrel  ;  their  flesh  is  good  for  little,  and  they  are  in  general 
favourites  both  with  native  and  English  sportsmen,  who  feel  dis- 
inclined to  meddle  with  a  creature  so  graceful  and  so  harmless. 

"  At  last  we  came  to  a  deeper  and  more  marshy  ground,  which 
lay  a  little  before  the  tope.  .  .  .  We  went  in,  keeping  line  as  if 
we  had  been  beating  for  a  hare,  through  grass  so  high  that  it 
reached  up  to  the  howda  of  my  elephant,  though  a  tall  one,  and 
almost  hid  the  Raja  entirely.  We  had  not  gone  far  before  a  very 
large  animal  of  the  deer  kind  sprang  up  just  before  me,  larger 
than  a  stag,  of  a  dusky  brown  colour,  with  spreading,  but  not 
palmated  horns.  Mr.  Boulderson  said  it  was  a  'mohr,'  a  species 
of  elk  ;  that  this  was  a  young  one,  but  that  they  sometimes  grew 
to  an  immense  size,  so  that  he  had  stood  upright  between  the 
tips  of  their  horns.  He  could  have  shot  it,  but  did  not  like  to  fire 
at  present,  and  said  it  was,  after  all,  a  pity  to  meddle  with  such 
harmless  animals.  The  mohr  accordingly  ran  off  unmolested, 
rising  with  splendid  bounds  up  to  the  very  top  of  the  high  jungle, 
so  that  his  whole  body  and  limbs  were  seen  from  time  to  time 
above  it.  A  little  farther,  another  rose,  which  Mr.  Boulderson 
said  was  the  female  ;  of  her  I  had  but  an  imperfect  view.  The 
sight  of  these  curious  animals  had  already,  however,  well  repaid 
my  coming  out,  and  from  the  animation  and  eagerness  of  every- 
body round  me,  the  anxiety  with  which  my  companions  looked 
for  every  waving  of  the  jungle-grass,  and  the  continued  calling 
and  shouting  of  the  horse  and  foot  behind  us,  it  was  impossible 
not  to  catch  the  contagion  of  interest  and  enterprise. 

"At  last  the  elephants  all  threw  up  their  trunks  into  the  air, 
began  to  roar  and  to  stamp  violently  with  their  forefeet,  the  Raja's 
little  elephant  turned  short  round,  and  in  spite  of  all  her  mahout 


220 


BISHOP  HEBER 


could  say  or  do,  took  up  her  post,  to  the  Raja's  great  annoyance, 
close  in  the  rear  of  Mr.  Boulderson.  The  other  three  (for  one  of  my 
baggage  elephants  had  come  out  too,  the  mahout,  though  unarmed, 
not  caring  to  miss  the  show)  went  on  slowly  but  boldly,  with  their 
trunks  raised,  their  ears  expanded,  and  their  sagacious  little  eyes 
bent  intently  forward.  '  We  are  close  upon  him,'  said  Mr. 
Boulderson  ;  '  fire  where  you  see  the  long  grass  shake,  if  he  rises 
before  you.'  Just  at  that  moment  my  elephant  stamped  again 
violently.  '  There,  there,'  cried  the  mahout,  '  I  saw  his  head  ! ' 
A  short  roar,  or  rather  loud  growl,  followed,  and  I  saw  immediately 
before  my  elephant's  head  the  motion  of  some  large  animal  stealing 
away  through  the  grass.  I  fired  as  directed,  and,  a  moment  after, 
seeing  the  motion  still  more  plainly,  fired  the  second  barrel. 
Another  short  growl  followed,  the  motion  was  immediately 
Cjuickened,  and  was  soon  lost  in  the  more  distant  jungle.  Mr. 
Boulderson  said,  '  I  should  not  wonder  if  you  hit  him  that  last 
time  ;  at  any  rate  we  shall  drive  him  out  of  the  cover,  and  then  I 
will  take  care  of  him.'  In  fact,  at  that  moment,  the  crowd  of 
horse  and  foot  spectators  at  the  jungle  side  began  to  run  off  in 
all  directions.  We  went  on  to  the  place,  but  found  it  was  a  false 
alarm,  and,  in  fact,  we  had  seen  all  we  were  to  see  of  him,  and 
went  twice  more  through  the  jungle  in  vain.  A  large  extent  of 
high  grass  stretched  out  in  one  direction,  and  this  we  had  now  not 
sufficient  daylight  to  explore.  In  fact,  that  the  animal  so  near 
me  was  a  tiger  at  all  I  have  no  evidence  but  its  growl,  Mr.  Boulder- 
son's  belief,  the  assertion  of  the  mahout,  and  what  is,  perhaps, 
more  valuable  than  all  the  rest,  the  alarm  expressed  by  the 
elephants.  I  could  not  help  feeling  some  apprehension  that  my 
firing  had  robbed  Mr.  Boulderson  of  his  shot,  but  he  assured  me 
that  I  was  quite  in  rule  ;  that  in  such  sport  no  courtesies  could  be 
observed,  and  that  the  animal,  in  fact,  rose  before  me,  but  that  he 
should  himself  have  fired  without  scruple  if  he  had  seen  the  rustle 
of  the  grass  in  time.  Thus  ended  my  first,  and  probably  my  last, 
essay  in  the  '  field  sports '  of  India,  in  which  I  am  much  mistaken, 
notwithstanding  what  Mr.  Boulderson  said,  if  I  harmed  any  living 
creature." 

' '  2^1  h  November. 

"  This  morning  we  began  to  pack  by  four  o'clock.  .  .  .  After 
coasting  the  lake  for  one  mile,  went  for  about  thirteen  more  by  a 
most  steep  and  rugged  road,  over  the  neck  of  Mount  Gaughur, 
through  a  succession  of  glens,  forests,  and  views  of  the  most 
sublime  and  beautiful  description.     I  never  saw  such  prospects 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


221 


bufore,  and  liad  formed  no  adequate  idea  of  such.  My  attention 
was  completely  strained,  and  my  eyes  filled  with  tears,  everything 
around  was  so  wild  and  magnificent  that  man  appeared  as  nothing, 
and  I  felt  myself  as  if  climbing  the  steps  of  the  altar  of  God's 
great  temple.  The  trees,  as  we  advanced,  were  in  a  large  pro- 
portion fir  and  cedar,  but  many  were  ilex,  and  to  my  surprise  I 
still  saw,  even  in  these  Alpine  tracts,  many  venerable  peepul-trees, 
on  which  the  white  monkeys  were  playing  their  gambols.  .  .  .  Tigers 
used  to  be  very  common  and  mischievous,  but  since  the  English 


have  frequented  the  country,  are  scarce,  and  in  comparison  very 
shy.  There  are  also  many  wolves  and  bears,  and  some  chamois, 
two  of  which  passed  near  us.  My  Sepoys  wanted  me  to  shoot 
one,  and  offered,  with  my  leave,  to  do  so  themselves,  if  I  did  not 
like  the  walk  which  would  be  necessary.  But  my  people  would 
not  have  eaten  them.  I  myself  was  well  supplied  with  provisions, 
and  I  did  not  wish  to  destroy  an  innocent  animal  merely  for  the 
sake  of  looking  at  it  a  little  closer  ;  I  therefore  told  them  it  was 
not  my  custom  to  kill  anything  which  was  not  mischievous,  and 
asked  if  they  would  stand  by  me  if  we  saw  a  tiger  or  a  bear. 
They  promised  eagerly  not  to  fail  me. 


222 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  After  winding  up 

"  '  A  wild  romantic  chasm  that  slanted 

Down  the  steep  hill,  athwart  a  cedar  cover, 
A  savage  place,  as  holy  and  enchanted 
As  e'er  beneath  the  waning  moon  was  haunted 
By  woman  wailing  for  her  demon  lover,' 

we  arrived  at  the  gorge  of  the  pass,  in  an  indent  between  the  two 
principal  summits  of  Mount  Gaughur,  near  8600  feet  above  the 
sea.  And  now  the  snowy  "mountains,  which  had  been  so  long 
eclipsed,  opened  on  us  in  full  magnificence. 

"  Nandidevi  was  immediately  opposite  ;  Kedamath  was  not 
visible  from  our  present  situation,  and  Meru  only  seen  as  a  very 
distant  single  peak.  The  eastern  mountains,  however,  for  which 
I  have  obtained  no  name,  rose  into  great  consequence,  and  were 
very  glorious  objects  as  we  wound  down  the  hill  on  the  other  side. 
The  guides  could  only  tell  me  that  '  they  were  a  great  way  off, 
and  bordered  on  the  Chinese  empire.' " 

"  Tjth  November. 

"  The  Chinese  frontier  is  strictly  guarded  by  the  jealous  care 
of  that  government.  Mr.  Moorcroft  did,  indeed,  pass  it  some 
years  ago,  and  was  kindly  received  by  one  of  the  provincial 
governors  ;  but  the  poor  man  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  died 
there,  as  a  punishment  for  his  hospitality,  and,  since,  nobody  has 
been  allowed  to  go  beyond  the  frontier  village.  ...  To  the  north, 
however,  the  small  independent  Tartar  kingdom  of  Ladak  has 
shown  itself  exceedingly  hospitable  and  friendly.  Mr.  Moorcroft, 
when  he  was  there,  was  treated  with  unbounded  kindness  and 
confidence,  and  their  khan  has  since  sent  a  formal  offer,  which  I 
am  sorry  was  declined,  of  his  allegiance  to  the  British  Government. 

".  .  .  Kumaon  is  e.xtremely  subject  to  earthquakes  ;  scarcely 
a  year  passes  without  a  shake  or  two,  and  though  all  have  been 
slight  since  the  English  came,  it  would  not  be  wise  to  build  upper- 
roomed  houses,  unless,  like  the  natives,  they  made  the  super- 
structure of  timber.  In  the  best  of  these  bungalows  I  found  Mr. 
Adam,  who  received  me  most  hospitably.  He  introduced  me  to 
Sir  Robert  Colquhoun,  the  commandant  of  the  local  troops  of 
Kumaon,  who  invited  me  to  accompany  Mr.  Adam  and  himself 
on  Monday  to  his  house  at  Havelbagh,  where  the  native  lines  are, 
and  where  Mr.  Adam  is  residing  at  present,  as  being  a  milder 
climate  than  that  of  Almora.  Mr.  Adam  had  a  party  to  dine  in 
the  evening,  and  I  found  that  almost  all  the  civil  and  military 
officers  here  were  Scotch." 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


223 


' '  Sunday,  2%tli  November. 
"  This  clay  I  enjoyed  the  gratification  of  being  the  first  Protestant 
minister  who  had  preached  and  administered  the  Sacraments  in 
so  remote,  yet  so  celebrated  a  region.  I  had  a  very  respectable 
congregation  of,  I  believe,  all  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  Almora 
and  Havelbagh.  Mr.  Adam  allowed  me  to  make  use  of  the  two 
principal  rooms  in  his  house,  which,  by  the  help  of  the  folding- 
doors  betw'een  them,  accommodated  thirty  or  thirty-five  persons 
with  ease.  I  was,  after  service,  introduced  to  Lady  Cokiuhoun, 
who  is  celebrated  in  the  province  as  a  bold  rider  along  the  mountain 
paths.  I  was  also  introduced  to  Captain  Herbert,  who  has  the 
situation  of  geologist  in  this  province,  and  who  seems  a  very  well- 
informed,  as  he  is  a  very  pleasing  and  unassuming  man.  He  and 
Sir  Robert  Cokjuhoun  were  just  returned  from  a  scientific  e.xpedi- 
tion  to  the  eastern  frontier,  and  gave  an  interesting  account  of  the 
Goorkha  troops  there,  whom  they  described,  as  they  have  been 
generally  represented,  as  among  the  smartest  and  most  European- 
like soldiery  of  India.    We  had  family  prayers." 

"  29//^  November. 

".  .  .  My  second  visitant  was  the  pundit  of  the  criminal  court 
of  Kumaon,  a  learned  Brahmin,  and  a  great  astrologer.  He  had 
professed  to  Mr.  Traill  a  desire  to  see  me,  and  asked  if  I  were  as 
well  informed  in  the  Vedas,  Puranas,  and  other  sacred  books  of 
the  Hindoos,  as  another  European  pundit  whom  he  had  heard 
preach  some  years  before  at  the  great  fair  of  Hurdwar  ?  He 
evidently  meant  the  Baptist  missionary  Mr.  Chamberlain  ;  and 
it  pleased  me  to  find  that  this  good  and  able,  though  bigoted  man, 
had  left  a  favourable  impression  behind  him  among  his  auditors." 

Wherever  he  travelled,  in  India  as  in  Russia,  Heber  had  an 
eye  to  the  economic  resources  of  the  country.  He  records 
the  prevalence  of  the  wild  tea-plant  all  through  Kumaon  ; 
"  but  it  cannot  be  made  use  of,  from  an  emetic  quality  which 
it  possesses.  This  might,  perhaps,  be  removed  by  cultivation, 
for  which  the  soil,  hilly  surface,  and  climate  —  in  all  of  which 
it  resembles  the  tea  provinces  of  China — are  extremely  favour- 
able." Since  that  time  the  China  plant  has  covered  the 
slopes  of  the  Himalayas  from  Dehra  Doon  to  Kangra,  and  the 
tea  is  exported  chiefly  into  Central  Asia.    The  Hon.  Sir  Henry 


224 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Ramsay,  K.C.S.I.,^  realised  more  than  even  Heber  dreamed 
of,  alike  in  the  physical  well-being  of  the  people  and  the 
extension  of  Christian  missions  among  them,  during  his  forty 
years'  administration  of  Kumaon,  beginning  with  the  year  of  the 
great  Mutiny.  Even  that  unexpected  rebellion  his  shrewd 
observation  and  sagacity  led  him  to  anticipate,  as  in  this  letter 
to  J.  Phillimore,  Esq.,  LL.D.  :— 

"  Almora,  ifjth  November  1824. 
"...  1  have  only  time  to  say  that  all  is,  at  present,  quiet  in  the 
Upper  Provinces  of  India,  and  I  think  likely  to  continue  so,  unless 
any  remarkable  reverses  occur  on  the  side  of  Ava.  A  general 
revolt  was,  a  little  time  since,  thought  not  unlikely,  but  the  period 
seems  now  gone  by  ;  and  the  alarming  mutiny  at  Barrackpoor  was 
apparently  made  in  concert  with  no  other  regiment.  But  there 
certainly  is,  in  all  the  Doab,  in  Oudh,  and  Rohilkhund,  an 
immense  mass  of  armed,  idle,  and  disaffected  population,  and  I 
am  inclined  to  doubt  whether  the  Honourable  Company's  tenure 
of  their  possessions  is  worth  many  years'  purchase,  unless  they 
place  their  army  on  a  more  numerous  establishment  than  it  now 
is,  and  do  something  more  for  the  internal  improvement  of  the 
country,  and  the  contentment  of  the  higher  ranks  of  natives  than 
they  have  hitherto  seemed  inclined  to  do.  I  am  quite  well,  and 
am  now  on  a  very  interesting  journey  through  a  part  of  Kumaon, 
enjoying  frosty  mornings,  cool  breezes,  and  the  view  of  the  noblest 
mountains  under  Heaven." 

The  mutiny  of  the  47  th  Native  Infantry  had  been  pro- 
nounced by  the  Court  of  Inquiry  to  be  "  an  ebullition  of  despair 
at  being  compelled  to  march  (to  Burma)  without  the  means  of 
doing  so,"  and  had  been  mismanaged  by  the  military  authorities. 
But  the  Burmanwar,and,it  must  be  admitted,  the  weak  personnel 
of  the  Government  of  India  since  the  departure  of  Lord  Hast- 
ings, had  created  much  disquietude.-  This  is  reflected  in 
another  letter  written  to  Lord  Amherst  two  months  later : — 

"  Jeypoor,  Z/^/h  January  1825. 
".  .  .  The  report,  indeed,  that  our  government  was  about  to 
evacuate  this  part  of  India,  had,  as  I  understand,  been  gradually 


1  See  Good  Words  for  May  1894. 
^  See  Marshman's  History  of  India,  chap.  .\xix. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


225 


dying  away  ever  since  the  conclusion  of  the  rainy  season.  It  had, 
no  doubt,  been  industriously  propagated  from  mischievous  moti\  es, 
but  its  origin  may  be  easy  to  account  for.  The  people  of  Hin- 
doostan  had  already  once  seen  the  English  government,  after 
extensive  conquests,  give  up  vast  tracts  of  country  and  retire 
within  their  ancient  limits  ;  and  the  incessant  march  of  troops  to 
the  eastward  which  they  witnessed  a  few  months  back,  joined  to 
the  vague  reports  which  reached  them  of  a  war  with  Ava,  and 
their  knowledge  that  a  new  Governor-General  was  lately  arrived, 
may  not  unnaturally  have  led  them  to  believe  that,  from  necessity 
or  otherwise,  an  entire  change  had  taken  place  in  British  policy, 
and  that  your  Lordship  was  about  to  evacuate  the  conquests  of 
Lord  Hastings,  in  the  same  manner  as  Lord  Cornwallis  gave  up 
the  new  provinces  acquired  by  his  predecessor.  From  whatever 
cause,  the  suspicion  was,  certainly,  very  widely  spread,  and  had 
the  effect  of  encouraging  the  enemies,  and  alarming  the  friends  of 
government. 

"  In  Rohilkhund  my  servants  told  me  that  even  so  trifling 
a  circumstance  as  my  going  through  the  country,  with  a  numerous 
escort  and  a  certain  degree  of  official  rank,  in  an  opposite  course 
from  the  supposed  tide  of  European  emigration,  produced  a 
good  deal  of  surprise  among  the  people  of  the  villages,  and  led 
them  to  think  more  favourably  of  the  continuance  of  English  rule 
than  they  had  previously  done.  And,  in  my  late  journey  through 
Bhurtpoor,  the  Raja  of  which  showed  me  great  hospitality  and 
attention,  I  could  not  help  observing  that  a  repair  of  his  fortresses 
had  been  begun,  but,  apparently,  again  discontinued  during  the 
last  five  or  six  months.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  the  ill-humour 
then  displayed  by  the  Rani  of  Jeypoor  may  have  led  him  to  think 
some  warlike  preparations  necessary.  The  Rani  herself,  who,  as 
a  princess  of  the  house  of  Oodeypoor,  has  an  almost  hereditary 
title  to  be  ambitious  and  intriguing,  is  now  described  by  her 
subjects  as  in  high  spirits,  and  exceedingly  fond  of  the  English  ; 
and  I  passed,  yesterday,  a  golden  image  set  with  precious  stones, 
which  she  is  sending,  under  a  strong  escort,  to  the  temple  of 
Bindrabun,  in  consequence,  as  is  believed,  of  a  vow,  and  as  a 
thanksgiving  for  the  favourable  tennination  of  her  discussions 
with  your  Lordship's  agents. 

"  Kumaon  is  a  very  interesting  country  ;  some  of  its  views 
exceed  in  sublimity  anything  which  I  have  seen  in  Norway,  and 
more  than  equal  all  which  I  have  heard  or  read  of  Switzerland. 
The  people,  too,  are  \  ery  interesting  ;  they  are  wretchedly  poor, 
but  they  are  kind-hearted,  hospitable,  and  honest  to  a  degree 
Q 


226 


BISHOP  HEBER 


which  I  have  not  witnessed  in  any  other  part  of  India  ;  and  from 
all  which  I  observed  myself,  or  heard  from  others,  this  is  one  of 
the  parts  of  India  where  the  British  are  really  loved,  and  their 
government  acknowledged  as  a  blessing.  I  was  forcibly  struck 
in  passing  through  this  province  with  the  persuasion  that  it  is 
here  that  the  plan,  which  I  heard  your  Lordship  suggest  in  con- 
versation, of  cultivating  tea  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire,  might 
be  most  successfully  carried  into  execution. 

"...  I  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  church,  chaplain,  and 
congregation  of  Meerut,  all  of  which  are  more  English  than  any- 
thing of  the  kind  which  I  have  seen  in  India.  In  Mr.  Fisher,  the 
chaplain,  I  had,  I  confess,  been  led  to  expect  some  share  of 
fanaticism  and  intemperate  zeal,  of  both  which  I  am  bound  to 
acquit  him.  The  sermon  which  I  heard  him  preach  was  extremely 
plain  and  sensible  ;  and  with  regard  to  his  native  converts,  who 
are  numerous,  he  has  solemnly  assured  me,  and  I  have  not  the 
smallest  reason  to  disbelieve  him,  that  he  has  sought  after  none 
of  them,  and  given  instruction  to  none  who  did  not  voluntarily 
come  to  request  it  of  him.  Two  such  came  while  I  was  in  Meerut, 
and  a  third,  during  the  same  time,  received  baptism.  Mr.  Fisher 
asked  me  to  perform  this  ceremony  myself,  but,  in  consequence 
of  the  rule  which  I  ha\  e  laid  down  not  to  become  needlessly  con- 
spicuous in  the  pursuit  of  objects  which  are  not  my  immediate 
concern,  I  declined.  For  the  same  reason  I  have  abstained  from 
distributing  tracts,  or  acting  in  any  way  which  might  excite  the 
jealousy  of  those  whom  it  is,  on  all  accounts,  desirable  to  con- 
ciliate. The  work  of  conversion  is,  I  think,  silently  going  on,  but 
those  who  wish  it  best  will  be  most  ready  to  say  fcstina  lente." 

Si.x  years  before,  on  loth  October  1819,  the  Sepoy  Prabhu 
Deen,  who  had  first  heard  of  Christ  when  stationed  in 
Mauritius,  was  baptized  by  the  chaplain,  Rev.  R.  Fisher.  His 
fellows  had  tried  to  prevent  the  step,  and  had  finally  falsely 
accused  him  of  acts  of  which  the  regimental  Court  of  Inquiry 
honourably  acquitted  him.  Thereupon  their  opposition 
ceased,  but  a  special  court  was  summoned,  which,  admitting 
his  exemplary  conduct  as  a  soldier,  decided  that  he  should 
leave  the  regiment.  He  declined.  On  this,  Sir  Edward 
Paget,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  offered  him  higher  rank  in 
another  corps,  but  in  vain.  He  remained  a  Christian  at 
Meerut,  and  when  his  old  comrades  next  visited  the  station, 
some  of  them  told  him  they  would  have  stood  by  him  as 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


227 


Christians  too,  but  could  not  face  expulsion  from  the  regiment.^ 
Hence  the  Bishop's  reference  to  Mr.  Fisher's  high  character 
in  his  letter  to  the  Governor-General.  Up  to  Lord  Canning's 
time,2  in  i860,  there  was  no  change  in  the  public  attitude  of 
political  fear,  leading  to  intolerance  to  Christianity,  on  the  part 
of  the  Government  of  India.  Bishop  Heber's  satisfaction  with 
Mr.  Fisher's  zeal  and  success  is  best  reflected  in  his  Journal : — 

"  18///  Deceinher  1824. 
"  This  morning  I  proceeded  to  Meerut,  and  was  met  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  town  by  Mr.  Fisher,  the  chaplain  (whom  I  had 
once,  many  years  ago,  heard  preach  at  Knaresborough),  and  two 
of  his  sons,  one  a  chaplain  on  the  Company's  establishment,  the 
other  a  lieutenant  in  the  same  service,  and  some  officers  of  the 
troops  in  garrison.'' 

"  \<)th  December. 

"  The  church  was  consecrated  this  day  with  the  usual  forms. 
The  congregation  was  very  numerous  and  attentive,  the  singing 
considerably  better  than  at  Calcutta,  and  the  appearance  of  every- 
thing highly  honourable  both  to  the  chaplain  and  military  officers 
of  this  important  station.  I  had  the  gratification  of  hearing  my 
own  hymns,  '  Brightest  and  best,'  and  that  for  St.  Stephen's  day, 
sung  better  than  I  ever  heard  them  in  a  church  before.  It  is  a 
remarkable  thing  that  one  of  the  earliest,  the  largest,  and  hand- 
somest churches  in  India,  as  well  as  one  of  the  best  organs, 
should  be  found  in  so  remote  a  situation,  and  in  sight  of  the 
Himalaya  Mountains.  The  evening  service  was  very  well  attended  ; 
and  this  is  the  more  creditable,  inasmuch,  as  I  ha\e  elsewhere 
observed,  all  who  then  come  are  volunteers,  whereas  attendance 
in  the  morning  is  a  part  of  military  parade." 

"  22nd  December. 

"  I  went  with  Mr.  Fisher  to  a  small  congregation  of  native 
Christians,  to  whom,  not  being  able  to  give  them  a  service  on 
Sunday,  he  reads  prayers  and  preaches  on  this  day.  About  twenty 
people  were  present  ;  one,  the  '  naik,'  or  corporal,  whom,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  embracing  Christianity,  Government  very  absurdly, 
not  to  say  wickedly,  disgraced  by  removing  him  from  his  regi- 


'  Reminiscences  of  Seventy  Years'  Life,  Travel,  and  Adventure,  London 
(Elliot  .Stock),  1893. 

^  See  Conversion  of  India,  p.  117. 


228 


BISHOP  HEBER 


ment,  though  they  still  allow  him  his  pay.  He  is  a  tall,  stout, 
plain-looking  man,  with  every  appearance  of  a  respectable  and 
well-behaved  soldier.  Another  was  Anund  Musseeh,  a  convert 
of  Mr.  Corrie's,  who  has  a  good  deal  distinguished  himself  as  a 
catechist  at  Delhi,  and  on  whom  Mr.  Fisher  wants  me  to  confer 
ordination.  He  is  a  tall,  coarse-looking  man,  without  much 
intellect  in  his  countenance,  but  is  said  to  be  very  eloquent  and 
well-informed,  so  far  as  a  knowledge  of  Hindostani  and  Persian 
enables  him.  I  had,  afterwards,  repeated  conversations  with  him, 
and  was  pleased  by  his  unassuming  and  plain  manner." 

'•  2.T,rd  December. 

"  This  morning  I  breakfasted  with  General  Reynell.  In  the 
evening  Mr.  Fisher  read  prayers  and  preached  to  a  tolerably 
numerous  congregation,  it  being  his  custom  to  have  service  of  this 
kind  every  Wednesday  and  Friday." 

' '  24//;  December. 

"This  day  I  confinned  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  people, 
young  and  old,  of  whom  between  forty  and  fifty  were  natives 
converted  to  Christianity  by  Mr.  Fisher.  Surely  all  this  is  what 
we  could  hardly  expect  in  so  remote  a  part  of  India,  and  where 
no  Englishman  had  set  his  foot  till  the  conquests  made  by  Lord 
Lake  and  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley." 

"  25///  December. 

"  Christmas  Day.  A  very  large  congregation,  and  above  two 
hundred  communicants." 

"  26/h  December. 

"  I  preached,  and  after  evening  service  confirmed  twelve  per- 
sons who  had  not  been  able  to  attend  on  the  Friday." 

"  27//;  December. 

"  I  received  a  present  of  fruit  from  the  Begum  Sumroo,  together 
with  a  civil  message,  expressing  a  hope  to  see  me  at  Sirdhana, 
to  which  I  returned  an  answer  in  an  English  letter.  Though  she 
herself  does  not  understand  the  language,  she  has  many  people 
about  her  who  do,  particularly  Colonel  Br>-ce,  who  acts  as  a  sort 
of  Resident  at  her  court." 

"  2?,th  December. 

"  I  set  off  from  Meerut.  Here  I  mounted  Nedjeed  —  did  I 
ever  tell  you  the  name  of  my  little  Arab  horse  before  ? — and 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


229 


pursued  my  journey,  escorted  by  five  of  Colonel  Skinner's  irregular 
cavalry,  the  most  showy  and  picturesque  cavaliers  I  have  seen 
since  I  was  in  the  south  of  Russia.  .  .  .  Colonel  Alexander 
Skinner  is  a  good  and  modest,  as  well  as  a  brave  man.  He  had 
just  devoted  20,000  sicca  rupees  to  build  a  church  at  Delhi." 

At  Delhi  the  reception  of  the  Bishop  by  the  titular  Emperor 
was  notable.  In  a  letter  to  Lord  Amherst,  Heber  described 
him  as 

"  The  poor  old  prince,  whose  name  was,  in  the  time  of  our  boy- 
hood, associated  as  '  Great  Mogul,'  with  every  possible  idea  of 
wealth  and  grandeur.  The  palace,  though  dismally  dirty  and 
ruinous,  is  still  very  fine,  and  its  owner  is  himself  a  fine  and 
interesting  ruin.  His  manner,  and,  I  understand,  his  general 
character,  is  one  of  extremely  courteous  acquiescence  and  resigna- 
tion, and  in  essential  points  he  has  unquestionably  good  reason 
to  think  himself  fortunate  in  the  hands  into  which  he  has  fallen." 

This  was  the  fallen  Emperor  Akbar  Shah,  tlie  immediate 
successor  of  Shah  Alum,  whom  Lord  Lake  had  delivered  from 
his  thraldom  to  the  Marathas,  and  who  died  in  i  806.  From 
that  year  to  1837  Akbar  Shah  reigned  only  in  the  palace, 
receiving  a  lakh  of  rupees  a  month,  besides  what  the  Marathas 
had  left  to  his  father.  Akbar's  eldest  son,  whom  also  Heber 
saw  on  this  occasion,  became  the  Emperor  Bahadur  Shah, 
who  allowed  himself  to  be  put  at  the  head  of  the  rebel  move- 
ment in  1857,  caused  the  murder  of  Christians,  and  was 
removed  to  Rangoon,  where  he  died  in  1862.  The  Journal 
describes  the  reception  in  detail : — 

"The  31st  December  was  fixed  for  my  presentation  to  the 
emperor,  which  was  appointed  for  half-past  eight  in  the  morning. 
Lushington  and  a  Captain  Wade  also  chose  to  take  the  same 
opportunity.  At  eight  I  went,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Elliott,  with 
nearly  the  same  formalities  as  at  Lucknow,  except  that  we  were 
on  elephants  instead  of  in  palanquins,  and  that  the  procession  was, 
perhaps,  less  splendid,  and  the  beggars  both  less  numerous  and 
far  less  vociferous  and  importunate.  We  were  received  with  pre 
sented  arms  by  the  troops  of  the  palace  drawn  up  within  the 
barbican,  and  proceeded,  still  on  our  elephants,  through  the 
noblest  gateway  and  vestibule  which  I  ever  saw.  It  consists,  not 
merely  of  a  splendid  Gothic  arch  in  the  centre  of  the  great  gate- 


BISHOP  HEBER 


tower,  but,  after  that,  of  a  long  vaulted  aisle,  like  that  of  a 
Gothic  cathedral,  with  a  small  open  octagonal  court  in  its  centre, 
all  of  granite,  and  all  finely  carved  with  inscriptions  from  the 
Koran,  and  with  flowers.  This  ended  in  a  ruinous  and  exceed- 
ingly dirty  stable-yard !  where  we  were  received  by  Captain 
Grant,  as  the  Mogul's  officer  on  guard,  and  by  a  number  of  elderly 
men  with  large  gold-headed  canes,  the  usual  ensign  of  office  here, 
and  one  of  which  Mr.  Elliott  also  carried.  We  were  now  told  to 
dismount  and  proceed  on  foot,  a  task  which  the  late  rain  made 
inconvenient  to  my  gown  and  cassock  and  thin  shoes,  and  during 
which  we  were  pestered  by  a  fresh  swarm  of  miserable  beggars, 
the  wives  and  children  of  the  stable  servants.  After  this  we 
passed  another  richly-carved,  but  ruinous  and  dirty,  gateway, 
where  our  guides,  withdrawing  a  canvas  screen,  called  out,  in  a 
sort  of  harsh  chant,  '  Lo,  the  ornament  of  the  world  !  Lo,  the 
asylum  of  the  nations  !  King  of  Kings  !  The  Emperor  Akbar 
Shah  !  Just,  fortunate,  victorious  ! '  We  saw,  in  fact,  a  very 
handsome  and  striking  court,  about  as  big  as  that  at  All  Souls, 
with  low,  but  richly-ornamented  buildings.  Opposite  to  us  was  a 
beautiful  open  pavilion  of  white  marble,  richly  carved,  flanked  by 
rose  bushes  and  fountains,  and  some  tapestry  and  striped  curtains 
hanging  in  festoons  about  it,  within  which  was  a  crowd  of  people, 
and  the  poor  old  descendant  of  Tamerlane  seated  in  the  midst  of 
them. 

"  Mr.  Elliott  here  bowed  three  times  very  low,  in  which  we 
followed  his  example.  This  ceremony  was  repeated  twice  as  we 
advanced  up  the  steps  of  the  pavilion,  the  heralds  each  time 
repeating  the  same  expressions  about  their  master's  greatness. 
We  then  stood  in  a  row  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  throne, 
which  is  a  sort  of  marble  bedstead  richly  ornamented  with  gild- 
ing, and  raised  on  two  or  three  steps.  Mr.  Elliott  then  stepped 
forwards,  and,  with  joined  hands  in  the  usual  Eastern  way, 
announced,  in  a  low  voice,  to  the  emperor  who  I  was.  I  then 
advanced,  bowed  three  times  again,  and  offered  a  ijuzzur  of  fifty- 
one  gold  mohurs  in  an  embroidered  purse,  laid  on  my  handker- 
chief, in  the  way  practised  by  the  Baboos  in  Calcutta.  This  was 
received  and  laid  on  one  side,  and  I  remained  standing  for  a  few 
minutes,  while  the  usual  court  questions  about  my  health,  my 
travels,  when  I  left  Calcutta,  etc.,  were  asked.  I  had  thus  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  the  old  gentleman  more  plainly.  He  has  a 
pale,  thin,  but  handsome  face,  with  an  aquiline  nose,  and  a  long 
white  beard.  His  complexion  is  little,  if  at  all  darker  than  that  of 
a  European.    His  hands  are  very  fair  and  delicate,  and  he  had 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


some  valuable-looking  rings  on  them.  His  hands  and  face  were 
all  I  saw  of  him,  for  the  morning  being  cold,  he  was  so  wrapped 
up  in  shawls  that  he  reminded  me  extremely  of  the  Druid's  head 
on  a  Welsh  halfpenny.  I  then  stepped  back  to  niy  former  place, 
and  retm'neil  again  with  fi\c  more  mohurs  to  make  iny  offering 
to  the  hcir-apparcnt,  who  stood  at  his  father's  left  hand,  the  right 
being  occupied  by  the  Resident.  Next,  my  two  companions  were 
introduced  with  nearly  the  same  forms,  except  that  their  offerings 
were  less,  and  that  the  emperor  did  not  speak  to  them. 

"The  emperor  then  beckoned  to  me  to  come  forwards,  and  Mr. 
Elliott  told  me  to  take  off  my  hat,  which  had  till  now  remained  on 
my  head,  on  which  the  emperor  tied  a  flimsy  turban  of  brocade 
round  my  head  with  his  own  hands,  for  which,  however,  I  paid 
four  gold  mohurs  more.  We  were  then  directed  to  retire  to  receive 
the  klieldis  (honorary  dresses)  which  the  bounty  of  '  the  Asylum 
of  the  World'  had  provided  for  us.  I  was  accordingly  taken 
into  a  small  private  room,  adjoining  the  zanana,  where  I  found 
a  handsome  flowered  caftan  edged  with  fur,  and  a  pair  of  common- 
looking  shawls,  which  my  servants,  who  had  the  delight  of  witness- 
ing all  this  fine  show,  put  on  instead  of  my  gown,  my  cassock 
remaining  as  before.  In  this  strange  dress  I  had  to  walk  back 
again,  having  my  name  announced  by  the  criers  (something  in 
the  same  way  that  Lord  Marmion's  was)  as  '  Bahadur,  Boozoony, 
Dowlut-mund,'  etc.,  to  the  presence,  where  I  found  my  two  com- 
panions, who  had  not  been  honoured  by  a  private  dressing-room, 
but  had  their  khelats  put  on  them  in  the  gateway  of  the  court. 
They  were,  I  apprehend,  still  cjueerer  figures  than  I  was,  having 
their  hats  wrapped  with  scarfs  of  flowered  gauze,  and  a  strange 
garment  of  gauze,  tinsel,  and  faded  ribands  flung  over  their 
shoulders  above  their  coats.  I  now  again  came  forward  and 
offered  my  third  present  to  the  emperor,  being  a  copy  of  the 
Arabic  Bible  and  the  Hindostani  Common  Prayer,  handsomely 
bound  in  blue  velvet  laced  with  gold,  and  wrapped  up  in  a  piece 
of  brocade.  He  then  motioned  to  me  to  stoop,  and  put  a  string 
of  pearls  round  my  neck,  and  two  glittering  but  not  costly  orna- 
ments in  the  front  of  my  turban,  for  which  I  again  offered  five 
gold  mohurs.  It  was,  lastly,  announced  that  a  horse  was  waiting 
for  my  acceptance,  at  which  fresh  instance  of  imperial  munificence 
the  heralds  again  made  a  proclamation  of  largesse,  and  I  again 
paid  five  gold  mohurs.  It  ended  by  my  taking  my  leave  with 
three  times  three  salaams,  making  up,  I  think,  the  sum  of  about 
threescore,  and  I  retired  with  Mr.  Elliott  to  my  dressing-room, 
whence  I  sent  to  her  Majesty  the  C^ueen,  as  she  is  generally  called, 


232 


BISHOP  HEBER 


though  Empress  would  be  the  ancient  and  more  proper  title,  a 
present  of  five  mohurs  more,  and  the  emperor's  chobdars  came 
eagerly  up  to  know  when  they  should  attend  to  receive  their 
buckshish. 

"  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  this  interchange 
of  civilities  was  very  expensive  either  to  his  majesty  or  to  me. 
All  the  presents  which  he  gave,  the  horse  included,  though 
really  the  handsomest  which  had  been  seen  at  the  court  of  Delhi 
for  many  years,  and  though  the  old  gentleman  evidently  intended 
to  be  extremely  civil,  were  not  worth  much  more  than  300  sicca 
rupees,!  so  that  he  and  his  family  gained  at  least  800  sicca  rupees  2 
by  the  morning's  work,  besides  what  he  received  from  my  two  com- 
panions, which  was  all  clear  gain,  since  the  khelats  which  they 
got  in  return  were  only  fit  for  May  Day,  and  made  up,  I  fancy, 
from  the  cast-off  finery  of  the  Begum.  On  the  other  hand,  since 
the  Company  have  wisely  ordered  that  all  the  presents  given  by 
native  princes  to  Europeans  should  be  disposed  of  on  the  Govern- 
ment account,  they  have  liberally,  at  the  same  time,  taken  on 
themselves  the  expense  of  paying  the  usual  money  nuzzurs  made 
by  public  men  on  these  occasions.  In  consequence,  none  of  my 
offerings  were  at  my  own  charge,  except  the  professional  and 
private  one  of  the  two  books,  with  which,  as  they  were  unexpected, 
the  emperor,  as  I  was  told,  was  very  much  pleased.  I  had,  of 
course,  several  buckshishes  to  give  afterwards  to  his  servants,  but 
these  fell  considerably  short  of  my  expenses  at  Lucknow. 

"  To  return  to  the  hall  of  audience.  While  in  the  small  apart- 
ment where  I  got  rid  of  my  shining  gannents,  I  w^as  struck  with 
its  beautiful  ornaments.  It  was  entirely  lined  with  white  marble 
inlaid  with  flowers  and  leaves  of  green  serpentine,  lapis -lazuli, 
and  blue  and  red  porphyry  ;  the  flowers  were  of  the  best  Italian 
style  of  workmanship,  and  evidently  the  labour  of  an  artist  of  that 
country.  All,  however,  was  dirty,  desolate,  and  forlorn.  Half 
the  flowers  and  lea\es  had  been  picked  out  or  otherwise  defaced, 
and  the  doors  and  windows  were  in  a  state  of  dilapidation,  while 
a  quantity  of  old  furniture  was  piled  in  one  comer,  and  a  torn 
hanging  of  faded  tapestiy  hung  over  an  archway  which  led  to  the 
interior  apartments.  '  Such,'  Mr.  Elliott  said,  '  is  the  general 
style  in  which  this  palace  is  kept  up  and  furnished.  It  is  not 
absolute  poverty  which  produces  this,  but  these  people  have  no 
idea  of  cleaning  or  mending  anything.'  For  my  own  part  I 
thought  of  the  famous  Persian  line, 


1  £z^  :  los. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


233 


' '  '  The  spider  hangs  her  tapestry  in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars,' 

and  felt  a  melancholy  interest  in  comparing  the  present  state  of 
this  poor  family  with  what  it  was  200  years  ago,  when  Bernier 
visited  Delhi,  or  as  we  read  its  palace  described  in  the  tale  of 
Madame  do  Genlis. 

"  After  putting  on  my  usual  dress  we  waited  a  little,  till  word 
was  brought  us  that  the  '  King  of  Kings,'  '  Shah-in-Shah,'  had 
retired  to  his  zanana  ;  we  then  went  to  the  hall  of  audience, 
which  I  had  previously  seen  but  imperfectly,  from  the  crowd  of 
people  and  the  necessity  of  attending  to  the  forms  which  1  had  to 
go  through.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  pavilion  of  white  marble,  open 
on  one  side  to  the  court  of  the  palace,  and  on  the  other  to  a  large 
garden.  Its  pillars  and  arches  are  exquisitely  carved  and  orna- 
mented with  gilt  and  inlaid  flowers,  and  inscriptions  in  the  most 
elaborate  Persian  character.  Round  the  frieze  is  the  motto, 
recorded,  I  believe,  in  Lalla  Rook/i, 

"  '  If  there  he  an  Elysium  on  earth, 
It  is  this,  it  is  this  !  ' 

The  marble  floor,  where  not  covered  by  carpets,  is  all  inlaid  in 
the  same  beautiful  manner  with  the  little  dressing-room  which  I 
had  quitted. 

"The  gardens,  which  we  next  visited,  are  not  large,  but,  in 
their  way,  must  have  been  extremely  rich  and  beautiful.  They 
are  full  of  very  old  orange  and  other  fruit  trees,  with  terraces  and 
parterres,  on  which  many  rose  bushes  were  growing,  and,  even 
now,  a  few  jonquils  in  flower.  A  channel  of  white  marble  for 
water,  with  little  fountain-pipes  of  the  same  material,  carx  ed  like 
roses,  is  carried  here  and  there  among  these  parterres,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  terrace  is  a  beautiful  octagonal  pavilion,  also  of  marble, 
lined  with  the  same  mosaic  flowers  as  in  the  room  which  I  first 
saw,  with  a  marble  fountain  in  its  centre,  and  a  beautiful  bath  in 
a  recess  on  one  of  its  sides.  The  windows  of  this  pavilion,  which 
is  raised  to  the  height  of  the  city  wall,  command  a  good  view  of 
Delhi  and  its  neighbourhood.  But  all  was,  when  we  saw  it,  dirty, 
lonely,  and  wretched  ;  the  bath  and  fountain  dry ;  the  inlaid 
pavement  hid  with  lumber  and  gardeners'  sweepings,  and  the  walls 
stained  with  the  dung  of  birds  and  bats. 

"  We  were  then  taken  to  the  private  mosque  of  the  palace,  an 
elegant  little  building,  also  of  white  marble,  and  exquisitely  carved, 
but  in  the  same  state  of  neglect  and  dilapidation,  with  peepuls 
allowed  to  spring  from  its  walls,  the  exterior  gilding  partially  torn 


234 


BISHOP  HEBER 


from  its  dome,  and  some  of  its  doors  coarsely  blocked  up  with 
unplastered  brick  and  mortar. 

"  We  went  last  to  the  '  dewanee  aum,'  or  hall  of  public  audience, 
which  is  in  the  outer  court,  and  where,  on  certain  occasions,  the 
Great  Mogul  sate  in  state,  to  receive  the  compliments  or  petitions 
of  his  subjects.  This  also  is  a  splendid  pavilion  of  marble,  not 
unlike  the  other  hall  of  audience  in  form,  but  considerably  larger, 
and  open  on  three  sides  only  ;  on  the  fourth  is  a  black  wall, 
covered  with  the  same  mosaic  work  of  flowers  and  leaves  as  I 
have  described,  and  in  the  centre  a  throne,  raised  about  ten  feet 
from  the  ground,  with  a  small  platform  of  marble  in  front,  where 
the  vizier  used  to  stand  to  hand  up  petitions  to  his  master.  Behind 
this  throne  are  mosaic  paintings  of  birds,  animals,  and  flowers  ; 
and  in  the  centre,  what  decides  the  point  of  their  being  the  work 
of  Italian  or  at  least  European  artists,  a  small  group  of  Orpheus 
playing  to  the  beasts.  This  hall,  when  we  saw  it,  was  full  of 
lumber  of  all  descriptions,  broken  palanquins  and  empty  bo.xes, 
and  the  throne  so  covered  with  pigeons'  dung  that  its  ornaments 
were  hardly  discernible.  How  little  did  Shahjehan,  the  founder 
of  these  fine  buildings,  foresee  what  would  be  the  fate  of  his 
descendants,  or  what  his  own  would  be  !  '\'anity  of  vanities  1 ' 
was  surely  never  written  in  more  legible  characters  than  on  the 
dilapidated  arcades  of  Delhi  I" 

"  2nd Janitary  1825. 
"  This  day,  being  Sunday,  I  confirmed  about  twenty  persons, 
and  I  afterwards  preached  and  administered  the  Sacrament,  Mr. 
Fisher  reading  prayers  ;  the  congregation  was  numerous,  and 
there  were  near  forty  communicants.  In  the  evening  also  we  had 
a  good  congregation." 

By  Muttra,  the  evil  centre  of  the  Krishna  cult.  Bishop  Heber, 
accompanied  by  Mr.  Lushington  and  Dr.  Smith,  henceforth 
his  medical  attendant,  reached  Agra,  from  which  he  visited 
the  palace-city  of  Fatehpoor  Sikri,  the  great  Akbar's  Windsor. 
Of  that  he  wrote,  "  There  is  no  quadrangle  either  in  Oxford  or 
Cambridge  fit  to  be  compared  with  it."  Like  all  visitors,  he 
found  the  Taj  finer  than  his  highest  expectations : — 

"  \2lh  January  1S25. 
"Archdeacon  Corrie's  celebrated  convert,  Abdul  Musseeh,^ 
breakfasted  this  morning  at  Mr.  Irving's  ;  he  is  a  very  fine  old 

'  See  Henry  Martyit,  Saint  and  Scholar  (1892),  pp.  285,  543. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


235 


man,  with  a  magnificent  gray  beard,  and  much  more  gentlemanly 
manners  than  any  Christian  native  whom  I  have  seen.  His  rank, 
indeed,  previous  to  his  conversion,  was  rather  elevated,  since  he 
was  master  of  the  jewels  to  the  Court  of  Oudh,  an  appointment  of 
higher  estimation  in  Eastern  palaces  than  in  those  of  Europe,  and 
the  holder  of  which  has  always  a  high  salary.  Abdul  Mussceh's 
present  appointments,  as  Christian  missionary,  are  si.xty  rupees  a 
month,  and  of  this  he  gives  away  at  least  half  1  Who  can  dare  to  say 
that  this  man  has  changed  his  faith  from  any  interested  motives  ? 
He  is  a  very  good  Hindostani,  Persian,  and  Arabic  scholar,  but 


knows  no  English.  There  is  a  small  congregation  of  native 
Christians,  converted  by  Mr.  Corrie  when  he  was  chaplain  at 
Agra,  and  now  kept  together  by  Abdul  Musseeh.  The  earnest 
desire  of  this  good  man  is  to  be  ordained  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England  ;  and  if  God  spares  his  life  and  mine,  I  hope, 
during  the  Ember  weeks  in  this  ne.xt  autumn,  to  confer  orders  on 
him.  He  is  every  way  fit  for  them,  and  is  a  most  sincere  Christian, 
quite  free,  so  far  as  I  could  observe,  from  all  conceit  or  enthusiasm. 
His  long  Eastern  dress,  his  long  gray  beard,  and  his  calm  resigned 
countenance,  give  him  already  almost  the  air  of  an  apostle." 


"  lyh  Jaiiiiaiy. 

"  I  went  to  see  the  celebrated  Taj  Mahal,  of  which  it  is  enough 
to  say  that,  after  hearing  its  praises  ever  since  I  had  been  in  India, 
its  beauty  rather  exceeded  than  fell  short  of  my  expectations. 


236 


BISHOP  HEBER 


There  was  much,  indeed,  which  I  was  not  prepared  for.  The 
surrounding  garden,  which,  as  well  as  the  Taj  itself,  is  kept  in 
excellent  order  by  Government,  with  its  marble  fountains,  beauti- 
ful cypresses  and  other  trees,  and  profusion  of  flowering  shrubs, 
contrasts  very  finely  with  the  white  marble  of  which  the  tomb 
itself  is  composed,  and  takes  off,  by  partially  concealing  it,  from 
that  stiffness  which  belongs  more  or  less  to  every  highly-finished 
building.  The  building  itself  is  raised  on  an  elevated  terrace  of 
white  and  yellow  marble,  and  having  at  its  angles  four  tall  minarets 
of  the  same  material.  The  Taj  contains,  as  usual,  a  central  hall, 
about  as  large  as  the  interior  of  the  Ratcliffe  Library,  in  which, 
enclosed  within  a  carved  screen  of  elaborate  tracery,  are  the  tombs 
of  the  Begum  Noor-jehan,  Shahjehan's  beloved  wife,  to  whom  it 
was  erected,  and  by  her  side,  but  a  little  raised  above  her,  of  the 
unfortunate  emperor  himself.  Round  this  hall  are  a  number  of 
smaller  apartments,  corridors,  etc.,  and  the  windows  are  carved 
in  lattices  of  the  same  white  marble  with  the  rest  of  the  building, 
and  the  screen.  The  pavement  is  in  alternate  squares  of  white, 
and  what  is  called  in  Europe  Sienna  marble  ;  the  walls,  screens, 
and  tombs  are  covered  with  flowers  and  inscriptions,  executed  in 
beautiful  mosaic  of  cornelians,  lapis-lazuli,  and  jasper  ;  and  yet, 
though  ev  erything  is  finished  like  an  ornament  for  a  drawing-room 
chimney-piece,  the  general  effect  produced  is  rather  solemn  and 
impressive  than  gaudy.  The  parts  which  I  like  least  are  the 
great  dome  and  the  minarets.  The  bulbous  swell  of  the  former 
I  think  clumsy,  and  the  minarets  have  nothing  to  recommend 
them  but  their  height  and  the  beauty  of  their  materials.  But  the 
man  must  have  more  criticism  than  taste  or  feeling  about  him 
who  could  allow  such  imperfections  to  weigh  against  the  beauties 
of  the  Taj  Mahal.  The  Junma  washes  one  side  of  the  garden, 
and  there  are  some  remains  of  a  bridge  which  was  designed  by 
Shahjehan,  with  the  intention,  as  the  story  goes,  to  build  a  second 
Taj  of  equal  beauty  for  his  own  separate  place  of  intennent,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river. 

"  The  number  of  persons  confirmed  was  about  forty,  half  of 
whom  were  native  Christians,  mostly  old  persons  and  converts  of 
Mr.  Corrie's  during  his  residence  here.  Abdul  Musseeh  told  me 
there  were  a  good  many  more  scattered  up  and  down  in  the 
neighbouring  towns  of  Coel,  Allyghur,  and  Etawah,  whither  he 
went  from  time  to  time,  but  who  were  too  far  off  to  attend  on  this 
occasion.  Of  sev  eral  he  spoke  as  elderly  persons,  who  had  been 
in  the  Maratha  service  during  Penn's  time,  of  European  extrac- 
tion, but  who  knew  no  language  but  Hindostani,  and  were  very 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


237 


glad  to  have  religious  instruction  afforded  them  in  that  language. 
Many  of  them  gladly  attend  on  his  and  Mr.  Irving's  ministry  ; 
but  others  are  zealous  Roman  Catholics,  and  adhere  closely  to  the 
priest  of  Agra." 

From  Agra  to  Baroda  and  Bombay  the  route  of  the  Bishop 
and  his  doctor  lay  through  the  States  of  Central  India  and 
Rajpootana,  where,  on  all  sides,  were  evidences  of  the  states- 
manship of  Sir  John  Malcolm  and  the  almost  kingly  magnifi- 
cence of  Colonel  Todd  and  Sir  David  Ochterlony  : — 

"  ']ih  Januaiy  1825. 
".  .  .  The  recollection  of  where  I  am,  and  the  circumstances 
of  convenience  and  safety  under  which  1  have  traversed,  and  am 
about,  if  it  please  God,  to  traverse  regions  which  are  laid  down 
as  a  terra  incognita  in  Arrowsmith's  map  of  18  16,  ought  to  make, 
and  I  hope  does  make,  a  strong  impression  on  my  mind  of  thank- 
fulness to  that  Great  God,  whose  providence  has  opened  to  the 
British  nation  so  wide  and  so  untried  a  field  of  usefulness, — and 
of  anxiety,  lest  we  should,  any  of  us,  in  our  station,  fall  short  of 
those  duties  which  this  vast  increase  of  power  and  dominion 
imposes  on  us.  I  am  often  ready  to  break  into  lamentations  that, 
where  so  much  is  to  do  in  my  own  peculiar  profession,  the  means 
at  my  disposal  enable  me  to  accomplish  so  little.  But  I  ought  to 
be  anxious,  far  more,  not  to  fall  short  in  my  exertions  of  those 
means  which  I  have,  and  to  keep  my  attention  steadily  fixed  on 
professional  objects,  in  order  that  what  I  cannot  do  myself  I  may 
at  least  lead  others  to  think  of,  and  perhaps  to  accomplish." 

' '  Zth  February. 

"  During  my  stay  at  Nusseerabad  I  was  the  guest  of  Brigadier 
Knox,  the  oldest  cavalry  officer  now  in  India,  and  who  has  not 
seen  England  since  he  was  a  boy.  His  house  had  as  yet  been 
the  only  place  for  divine  service,  but  was  not  nearly  large  enough 
for  the  station.  There  was  a  ballroom  of  sufficient  size,  but 
objections  had  been  made  to  using  this  as  a  church  also,  which  I 
soon  obviated,  and  the  place  was  directed  to  be  got  ready  for 
Sunday.  On  the  Saturday  preceding  I  held  a  confirmation,  when 
I  administered  the  rite  to  twenty -seven  people,  the  good  old 
Brigadier  at  their  head.  On  Sunday  I  had  a  congregation  of 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty,  of  whom  thirty-two  stayed  for  the 


238 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Sacrament.  This  was  an  interesting  sight  in  a  land  where,  fifteen 
years  ago,  very  few  Christians  had  ever  penetrated." 

"  l^lh  February. 

"All  the  provinces  of  Meywar  were,  for  a  considerable  time 
after  their  connection  with  the  British  Government,  under  the 
administration  of  Captain  Todd,  whose  name  appears  to  be  held  in 
a  degree  of  affection  and  respect  by  all  the  upper  and  middling 
classes  of  society,  highly  honourable  to  him,  and  sufficient  to 
rescue  these  poor  people  from  the  often-repeated  charge  of  ingrati- 
tude. Here,  and  in  our  subsequent  stages,  we  were  continually 
asked  by  the  cutwals,  etc.,  after  '  Todd  Sahib,'  whether  his  health 
was  better  since  he  returned  to  England,  and  whether  there  was 
any  chance  of  their  seeing  him  again  ?  On  being  told  it  was  not 
likely,  they  all  expressed  much  regret,  saying  that  the  country  had 
never  known  quiet  till  he  came  among  them,  and  that  everybody, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  except  thieves  and  Pindarees,  loved  him. 
He,  in  fact,  Dr.  Smith  told  me,  loved  the  people  of  this  country, 
and  understood  their  language  and  manners  in  a  very  unusual 
degree.  He  was  on  terms  of  close  friendship  with  Salim  Singh  of 
Kotah,  and  has  left  a  name  there  as  honourable  as  in  Oodeypoor." 

' '  20lh  February. 

"  Captain  Gerard  I  found,  under  a  very  modest  exterior,  a  man 
of  great  science  and  information  ;  he  was  one  of  the  persons  most 
concerned  in  the  measurement  and  exploring  of  the  Himalaya 
Mountains,  had  been  in  Ladak,  and  repeatedly  beyond  the  Chinese 
frontier,  though  repelled  each  time,  after  penetrating  a  few  miles, 
by  the  Tartar  cavalry.  He  had  himself  ascended  to  the  height 
of  nineteen  thousand  six  hundred  feet,  or  four  hundred  higher 
than  Humboldt  had  ever  climbed  amid  the  Andes,  and  the  latter 
part  of  his  ascent,  for  about  two  miles,  was  on  an  inclined  plane, 
of  forty-two,  a  nearer  approach  to  the  perpendicular  than  Hum- 
boldt conceived  it  possible  to  climb  for  any  distance  together. 
Nothing,  he  said,  could  exceed  the  care  with  which  Major  Hodg- 
son, Mr.  Frazer,  and  himself  had  ascertained  the  altitude  of  the 
hills.  Each  of  the  accessible  peaks  had  been  measured  by 
repeated  and  scrupulous  experiments  with  the  barometer,  corrected 
by  careful  trigonometrical  measurement,  checked  by  astronomical 
observations.  The  inaccessible  heights  had  been  found  by  trigon- 
ometry, on  bases  of  considerable  extent,  and  with  the  help  of  the 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


239 


best  and  highest-priced  instruments.  The  aUitudes,  therefore,  of 
the  hills,  and  the  general  geography  of  the  provinces  on  the 
British  side  of  the  frontier,  he  regarded  as  about  as  well  settled 
as  human  means  could  do  it,  and  far  better  than  the  same  objects 
have  been  obtained  in  most  countries  of  Europe.  The  line  at 
which  vegetation  ends  he  states  to  be  about  thirteen  thousand 
feet.  The  mountains  of  Kumaon,  he  said,  are  considerably  more 
accessible  and  less  rocky  than  those  which  lie  north  of  Sabathoo, 
where  the  scenery  is  more  sublimely  terrible  than  can  be  described. 
Yet  Nandidevi,  and  the  other  highest  peaks,  lie  nearer  to  Almora 
than  to  Sabathoo,  and  the  scenery  of  both  these  situations  falls 
short  of  the  upper  parts  of  the  valley  of  the  Alakananda,  which 
flows  between  them.  The  more  I  hear  of  these  glorious  hills,  the 
more  do  I  long  to  see  them  again,  and  explore  them  further. 
But  my  journeys  never  can,  nor  ought  to  be  mere  tours  of  pleasure, 
and  the  erection  of  a  new  church,  the  location  of  a  new  chaplain, 
and  twenty  other  similar  matters  may  compel  me  to  a  course 
extremely  contrary  to  what  I  could  desire  if  I  were  master  of  my 
own  time." 


At  Banswara,  the  most  southerly  of  the  states  of  Rajpootana, 
then  notorious  for  female  infanticide,  he  was  surprised  by  the 
architectural  attractions  of  the  palace  and  the  walled  town,  as 
large  as  Chester.  Here  he  first  saw  the  Bheel  aborigines,  for 
whom  Christian  missionaries  are  now  doing  much.  When 
passing  from  the  wild  Bheel  country  into  the  Bombay  Presi- 


i'ALACE 


HE 


240 


BISHOP  HEBER 


dency,  where  he  was  met  by  Archdeacon  Barnes,  an  old  Oxford 
friend,  the  Bishop  thus  wrote  in  his  Journal : — 

"  13M  March. 

"  This  day,  being  Sunday,  I  was  happy  to  be  able  to  halt,  an 
order  which  I  believe  was  very  acceptable  to  all  the  men  and 
animals  in  the  camp,  who,  after  our  late  stony  roads,  were  alike 
showing  symptoms  of  fatigue.  I  read  prayers  as  usual  in  the 
morning  ;  and  in  consideration  of  the  greatly  advanced  price  of 
provisions,  which  was  now  a  rupee  for  fourteen  seers  of  flour,  I 
paid  the  bunyas  for  furnishing  a  seer  of  flour,  or  day's  meal  to 
every  person  in  the  camp.  In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  I  had 
the  happiness  to  receive  a  packet  of  letters,  forwarded  by  Mr. 
Williams,  Resident  at  the  court  of  Baroda,  containing  a  favourable 
account  of  my  wife  and  children,  and  letters  from  my  mother  and 
sister.     I  dreamt  of  Hodnet  all  night  !" 


BHF.EL  INCLOSUUE,  [t.^M liUESK A 

'•  is//i  March. 

"  Near  Barreah  village  was  the  finest  banyan-tree  which  I  had 
ever  seen,  literally  a  grove  rising  from  a  single  primary  stem, 
whose  massive  secondary  trunks,  with  their  straightness,  orderly 
arrangement,  and  evident  connection  with  the  parent  stock,  gave 
the  general  effect  of  a  vast  vegetable  organ.  The  first  impression 
which  I  felt  on  coming  under  its  shade  was,  '  What  a  noble  place 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


241 


of  worship  ! '  I  was  glad  to  find  that  it  had  not  been  debased,  as 
I  expected  to  find  it,  by  the  symbols  of  idolatry,  though  some  rude 
earthen  figures  of  elephants  were  set  up  over  a  wicket  leading  to 
it,  but  at  a  little  distance.  I  should  exult  in  such  a  scene,  to 
collect  a  Christian  congregation." 

At  Baroda,  the  capital  of  the  Maratha  State  of  the  Gaikwar, 
who  received  him  with  much  ceremony — including  an  offer  to 
bait  an  elephant,  which  he  declined— the  Bishop  consecrated 
the  pretty  Gothic  church  in  which,  ten  years  after.  Dr.  John 
Wilson  of  Bombay  preached.  At  Nadiad,  now  a  railway 
station,  he  was  visited  by  the  Hindoo  reformer,  Swami  Narain, 
of  whose  popularity  and  of  the  purity  of  whose  teaching  he 
had  heard  more  than  the  facts  justified  afterwards  : — 

"  He  came  in  a  somewhat  different  style  from  all  which  I 
expected,  having  with  him  near  two  hundred  horsemen,  mostly 
well  armed  with  matchlocks  and  swords,  and  several  of  them  with 
coats  of  mail  and  spears.  Besides  them  he  had  a  large  rabble  on 
foot,  with  bows  and  arrows  ;  and  when  I  considered  that  I  had 
myself  more  than  fifty  horse,  and  fifty  musquets  and  bayonets,  I 
could  not  help  smiling,  though  my  sensations  were  in  some  degree 
painful  and  humiliating,  at  the  idea  of  two  religious  teachers 
meeting  at  the  head  of  little  armies,  and  filling  the  city,  which 
was  the  scene  of  their  interview,  with  the  rattling  of  quivers,  the 
clash  of  shields,  and  the  tramp  of  the  war-horse.  Had  our  troops 
been  opposed  to  each  other,  mine,  though  less  numerous,  would 
have  been,  doubtless,  far  more  effective,  from  the  superiority  of 
arms  and  discipline.  But,  in  moral  grandeur,  what  a  difference 
was  there  between  his  troop  and  mine  1  Mine  neither  knew  me, 
nor  cared  for  me  ;  they  escorted  me  faithfully,  and  would  have 
defended  me  bravely,  because  they  were  ordered  by  their  superiors 
to  do  so,  and  as  they  would  have  done  for  any  other  stranger  of 
sufficient  worldly  rank  to  make  such  an  attendance  usual.  The 
guards  of  Swami  Narain  were  his  own  disciples  and  enthusiastic 
admirers,  men  who  had  voluntarily  repaired  to  hear  his  lessons, 
who  now  took  a  pride  in  doing  him  honour,  and  who  would  cheer- 
fully fight  to  the  last  drop  of  blood  rather  than  suffer  a  fringe  of 
his  garment  to  be  handled  roughly.  In  the  parish  of  Hodnet 
there  were  once,  perhaps,  a  few  honest  countrymen  who  felt  some- 
thing like  this  for  me  ;  but  how  long  a  time  must  elapse  before 
any  Christian  teacher  in  India  can  hope  to  be  thus  loved  and 
honoured  !    Yet,  surely  there  is  some  encouragement  to  patient 


242 


BISHOP  HEBER 


labour  which  a  Christian  minister  may  derive  from  the  success  of 
such  men  as  these  in  India, — inasmuch  as  where  others  can 
succeed  in  obtaining  a  favourable  hearing  for  doctrines,  in  many 
respects,  at  variance  with  the  general  and  received  system  of 
Hindooism,  the  time  may  surely  be  expected,  through  God's 
blessing,  when  our  endeavours  also  may  receive  their  fruit,  and 
our  hitherto  almost  barren  Church  may  '  keep  house  and  be  a 
joyful  mother  of  children.'" 

At  Kaira,  long  the  Bombay  frontier  military  station,  another 
church,  "  large  and  solid,  but  clumsy,"  was  consecrated,  and 
many  were  confirmed ;  "  altogether,"  he  wrote,  "  I  have  seen 


no  Indian  station  (Meerut  excepted)  from  which  I  have  derived 
so  much  comfort  and  pleasure."  At  Broach  and  Surat  he  was 
in  the  earliest  seats  not  only  of  the  East  India  Company,  but 
of  the  classical  trade  with  Italy  and  Europe. 

Dropping  down  the  Tapti  to  the  old  port  of  Suwali,  where 
Tom  Coryate  died  in  1617,^  Heber  went  on  board  the 

'  This  eccentric  traveller's  Crudities  and  Letters  first  appeared  in  161 1-1616. 
Edward  Terry,  chaplain  to  Sir  Thomas  Roe,  when  ambassador  to  the  Great 
Mogul,  after  he  visited  the  spot,  wrote  in  1655  his  epitaph,  which  thus  begins 
and  ends : — 

"  Here  lies  the  Wanderer  of  his  age, 
Who  living  did  rejoice, 
Not  out  of  need,  but  choyce, 
To  make  his  life  a  Pilgrimage. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


243 


Company's  ketch  Vigilant,  from  which  he  landed  at  Bombay 
city  on  20th  April  under  the  usual  salute.  Six  days  there- 
after he  was  joined  by  his  wife  and  elder  daughter,  after  ten 
months'  separation,  during  which,  in  cabin  or  tent,  he  had 
travelled  some  three  thousand  miles,  confirming  the  churches, 
strengthening  the  Christians  of  the  dispersion,  and  doing  the 
work  of  an  evangelist  among  the  native  subjects  of  both  British 
provinces  and  feudatory  states.  This  letter  to  Charlotte  Dod 
pleasantly  reviews  the  tour  : — 

"  Bombay,  i6//;  June  1825. 
"  Dearest  Charlotte — I  wrote  to  you  last  from  Almora, 
giving  some  account  of  my  journey  from  Calcutta  to  that  place, 
and  a  view  of  the  neighbouring  peaks  of  the  Indian  Caucasus. 
About  a  week  after,  I  renewed  my  journey  by  another  way  towards 
the  plains — a  track  yet  wilder  and  more  towering  than  the  one 
which  had  brought  me  to  Fort  Moira,  but  which  was  rendered  in 
many  respects  more  agreeable  by  the  company  of  Sir  Robert 
Colquhoun  and  his  wife  (a  pretty  young  Scotchwoman,  who  has 
completely  assimilated  herself  to  the  climate  and  hardships  of  the 
Himalaya,  and  whose  mountain  pony  scrambled  up  and  down 
declivities  which  might  almost  have  puzzled  a  dog).  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  romantic  beauty  of  the  country,  whose  mountains 
(being  the  reputed  seat  of  Indra's  paradise)  called  forth  many 
expressions  of  devotion  from  my  poor  Hindoo  followers,  and  whose 
ice  and  snow  were  so  great  a  novelty  to  them  that  several  of  the 
younger  soldiers  expressed  their  regret  that  they  could  not  carry 
pieces  away  with  them  as  curiosities.  The  only  time  that  they 
were  disposed  to  complain  was  when,  during  a  single  morning's 
march,  they  had  to  ford  the  same  winding  torrent — icy  cold — 
twelve  times,  as  deep  as  their  chests,  and  even  then  they  were 
easily  restored  to  good-humour  by  asking  them  if  they  could  not 
bear  it  as  well  as  the  young  lady,  who  was,  indeed,  as  wet  as  any 
of  us  were,  and  bore  this  and  all  other  hardships  with  a  cheer- 
fulness by  which  anybody  might  take  example.  The  greatest 
height  to  which  we  climbed  was  a  little  more  than  8000  feet,  the 
advanced  period  of  the  year  preventing  any  nearer  approach  to 
the  giants  of  the  central  range,  though  the  whole  of  our  march 


"  To  fill  it  when  he  found  no  room, 
By  the  choyce  things  he  saw 
In  Europe  and  vast  Asia, 
Fell  blinded  in  this  narrow  Tombe." 


244 


BISHOP  HEBER 


offered  a  succession  of  glorious  views  of  their  rude  outline  and 
dazzling  whiteness. 

"  I  sometimes  fear,  indeed,  my  friends  at  home  will  think 
that  I  rave  on  the  subject  of  the  Himalayas.  My  letters 
since  have  all  been  full  of  their  praises,  and  I  still  talk  and 
think  of  them  as  if  I  had  only  just  left  them.     Nothing,  indeed, 


CLIMBING  THE  HIMALAYAS 


which  I  have  since  seen  was  likely  to  efface  their  impression 
from  my  mind,  though  I  have  seen  many  wide  and  wild  lands, 
many  goodly  and  ancient  cities,  some  mountains  and  forests  of 
xcry  considerable  beauty,  and  some  tribes  of  men  as  wild  and 
picturesque  as  any  that  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of.  My  road,  after 
returning  to  the  plains,  lay  through  Meerut  (which  is  one  of  the 
names  of  stations  which  you  and  Miss  Congreve  wrote  dowm,  and 
where  I  found  a  large  English  congregation,  a  very  fine  church, 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


245 


and  a  good  many  native  Christians),  Delhi  (where  1  was  pre- 
sented in  fonn  to  the  poor  old  emperor,  and  had  sufficient 
opportunity  to  meditate  over  the  fallen  splendour  of  '  the  Great 
Mogul '),  and  Agra,  also  a  ruinous  monument  of  departed  wealth 
and  greatness,  but  containing  still,  in  good  repair,  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  specimens  of  architecture  which  any  age  or  country 
has  to  show.  I  had  heard  many  descriptions  and  seen  some 
drawings  of  the  '  Pearl  Mosque,'  and  the  '  Crowned  House,'  but  I 
was  by  no  means  prepared  to  expect  the  beautiful  purity  and 
simplicity  which  is  displayed  in  the  white  marble  arcades  of  the 
one,  or  the  extraordinary  mixture  of  richness  of  materials,  delicacy 
of  workmanship,  extent  of  design,  and  touching  melancholy  of 
general  effect  which  is  displayed  in  the  latter.  It  is  the  tomb  of 
the  favourite  wife  of  Shahjehan,  is  an  octagonal  building,  half 
as  large  again  as  the  Ratcliffe  Library  at  Oxford,  with  four  tall 
minarets  and  a  large  dome,  all  of  white  marble  ;  its  gates,  walls, 
and  its  whole  inside  inlaid  with  flowers  and  branches  in  cornelians, 
serpentine,  and  lapis-lazuli  ;  the  tracery  of  its  Gothic  windows  in 
white  marble ;  and  yet,  amid  all  this  richness,  nothing  glaring  or 
tawdry  to  be  seen,  but  a  solemn  effect  produced  which  reminded 
me  of  our  best  Gothic  cathedrals.  It  stands  in  a  large  garden  of 
cypresses  and  palm-trees,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  the  English 
Government  that  it  is  now  kept  even  in  better  repair  and  order 
than  it  was  under  the  Moguls. 

"At  Agra  there  is  another  small  congregation  of  native 
Christians,  chiefly  converted  by  my  amiable  friend  Archdeacon 
Corrie,  and  now  under  the  care  of  a  venerable  old  native  mis- 
sionary, who  has  taken  the  name  Abdul  Messeeh  ('  servant 
of  the  Messiah ').  To  these  poor  people,  as  well  as  to  the  other 
scattered  congregations  of  the  same  description  in  India,  I  hope 
my  visits  have  been,  and  will  be,  productive  of  some  comfort 
and  advantage.  Two  days'  march  from  Agra  I  left  the  Company's 
territories  and  travelled  during  nearly  three  months  through  those 
of  the  Rajapoot  and  Maratha  princes  of  Western  and  Central 
India,  of  which  I  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  more  than  usually 
falls  to  the  lot  of  Europeans  in  this  country.  I  was  received  every- 
where extremely  well,  both  by  the  natives,  their  rulers,  and  the 
officers  of  our  advanced  corps,  scattered  in  different  cantonments 
through  that  rich  country,  which,  ten  years  ago,  was  almost  unknown 
to  Europeans,  but  is  now,  all  of  it,  nominally,  at  least,  connected 
with  the  British  by  alliance  or  vassalage.  Here  I  saw  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  influence  of  my  countr^'men  had  hitherto 
been  beneficial  to  the  natives.     Before  Lord  Hastings  established 


246 


BISHOP  HEBER 


our  superiority  in  these  provinces  they  were  exposed  to  the  almost 
continuous  incursions  of  the  principal  Maratha  sovereigns,  and 
the  still  worse  and  more  horrible  ravages  of  the  Pindarees  of 
Central  India,  so  that  the  fields  remained  uncultivated  except  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  towns  or  villages,  and  no  town 
or  village  was  without  its  fortification,  within  which  the  cattle  were 
driven  every  night,  and  out  of  which  no  man  thought  the  lives  of 
his  family  in  safety. 

"  Now,  though  there  are  still  many  disturbances  from  the 
internal  feuds  of  the  numberless  petty  chieftains,  each  of 
whom  rules  like  a  feudal  baron  in  his  castle,  with  as  many 
armed  followers  as  he  can  maintain,  and  though  the  greater  states 
themselves  are  still  liable  to  many  of  the  sudden  and  bloody 
revolutions  which  are  of  ordinary  occurrence  in  Eastern  principali- 
ties, the  lands  are  again  tilled,  the  public  roads  are  to  be  traversed 
in  tolerable  safety,  marks  of  gradual  improvement  and  restored 
confidence  are  everywhere  visible  in  the  number  of  new  wells, 
orchards,  and  houses,  and,  more  than  all,  perhaps,  in  the  state  of 
neglect  and  decay  into  which  the  fortifications  of  their  villages  are 
suffered  to  fall.  Nor  are  these  the  only  proofs  of  amendment, 
since  the  villagers  readily  expressed  their  obligations  to  the  English 
for  freeing  them  from  the  Pindarees,  and  I  overheard  one  con- 
versation among  themselves  in  which  they  compared  the  present 
peaceable  times  with  those  in  which  '  Ameer  Khan  and  Bapoo 
Sindia  came  up  with  their  horsemen  and  spoiled  all  the  land,  and 
smote  all  the  people,  and  burnt  the  cities,  through  Meywar  and 
Marwar,  till  thou  comest  unto  the  Salt  wilderness.'  I  give  their 
own  language,  which,  with  all  the  circumstances  of  their  habita- 
tions, dress,  armour,  and  pastoral  and  agricultural  way  of  life, 
their  women  grinding  at  the  mill,  their  cakes  baked  on  the  coals, 
their  corn  trodden  out  by  oxen,  their  maidens  passing  to  the  well, 
their  travellers  lodging  in  the  street,  their  tents,  their  camels,  their 
shields,  spears,  and  coats  of  mail,  their  Musalmans  with  a  religion 
closely  copied  from  that  of  Moses,  their  Hindoo  tribes  worshipping 
the  same  abominations  with  the  same  rites  as  the  ancient  Canaan- 
ites,  their  false  prophets  swarming  in  everj'  city,  and  foretelling 
good  or  evil,  as  it  suits  the  political  views  of  their  employers,  their 
judges  sitting  in  the  gate,  and  their  wild  Bheels  and  Kholies 
dwelling  (like  the  ancient  Amorites)  in  holes  and  clefts  of  the 
rocks,  and  coming  down  with  sword  and  bow  to  watch  the  motions 
or  attack  the  baggage  of  the  traveller,  I  felt  myself  transported 
back  3000  years,  and  a  contemporary  of  Joshua  or  Samuel. 

"  I   sau'  the  country  in  some  respects  at  an  unfa\  ourable 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


247 


time,  for  they  had  had  veiy  Httle  rain  for  the  last  two  years,  and  in 
the  west  of  Guzerat,  in  the  forests  between  that  province  and 
Malwa,  and  the  greater  part  of  Rajpootana  or  Ajmer  towards  the 
desert,  I  met  many  little  parties  of  poor  emigrants  passing  towards 
the  Company's  provinces,  '  having  heard  that  there  was  corn  there 
and  grass,  and  that  their  cattle  might  not  perish.'  In  one  poor 
little  city  in  the  midst  of  these  forests  and  mountains,  whose  Raja, 
a  little  boy  of  ten  years  old,  I  made  very  happy  by  the  present  of 
some  English  muslin  and  a  gilt  dagger  (I  had  unfortunately 
given  away  all  my  copies  of  the  New  Testament),  I  was  moved 
to  more  than  tears — to  downright  sickness  of  heart — by  the  hunger 
and  wretchedness  which  was  visible.  There  was  literally  a  crying 
for  bread  in  their  streets  ;  the  countenances  of  all  seemed  to  have 
gathered  blackness,  and  the  women  and  children  were,  some  of 
them,  such  hideous  and  ghastly  skeletons,  that  I  did  not  before 
suppose  it  possible  for  creatures  so  thin  and  pale  to  be  alive  and 
crawling  about.  These  were  the  worst  off  that  I  saw,  but  in 
many  other  places  the  cattle  were  so  weak  (the  greater  part  having 
died  of  mere  hunger  and  drought)  that,  in  crossing  the  road,  some 
of  them  fell  down,  and  could  not  rise  again,  and  we  were  told  that, 
had  we  passed  that  way  but  ten  days  later,  the  last  wells  would 
have  been  dry,  the  people  would  all  have  been  driven  elsewhere, 
and  we  should  have  been  almost  under  a  necessity  of  waiting  in 
Malwa  till  a  more  propitious  season.  The  Bheels  suffered  most, 
and  met  with  least  pity  from  their  neighbours,  who  are  but  too 
apt  to  treat  them  as  beasts  of  prey,  though  they  are,  in  fact,  a 
bold  and  docile  race  ;  among  whom,  as  they  have  no  caste  to  con- 
tend with,  I  hope  before  it  is  very  long  to  send  a  missionary.  A 
good  and  prudent  man  would,  I  have  little  doubt,  he  well  received 
by  them,  though  what  they  are  now  you  may  judge  from  a  little 
conversation  which  an  acquaintance  of  mine  had  with  some  of 
them  during  the  spring  of  last  year.  In  passing  the  fords  of  the 
Banass  at  the  same  time  with  a  large  convoy  of  oxen  laden  with 
corn  and  oil,  he  noticed  a  few  Bheels  leaning  pensively  on  their 
bows,  as  if  spectators  of  the  crowd  and  bustle.  '  Are  these  cattle 
yours  ?  '  he  asked.  '  No,'  was  the  answer,  '  but  a  good  many  of 
them  would  have  fallen  to  our  share  if  it  had  not  been  for  you 
English,  who  take  care  that  nobody  shall  rob  but  yourselves  ! ' 

"  Still,  notwithstanding  the  wildness  of  the  country,  and  the 
poverty  and  thieving  of  the  people,  I  have  been  greatly  interested 
and  pleased  with  my  journey  through  Central  India  and  Guzerat, 
though  the  heat  in  the  latter  country  in  the  month  of  April  was  so 
intense  as  I  never  felt  elsewhere.    The  1 8th  of  April,  after  twice 


248 


BISHOP  HEBER 


crossing  the  Mhye,  and  seeing  the  different  stations  on  the  coast 
pretty  thoroughly,  I  embarked  at  Surat  for  Bombay,  and  the  2ist 
(my  birthday)  I  arrived  in  this  island,  where,  a  few  days  after,  my 
two  dear  Emilies  joined  me,  having  had  a  sadly  tedious  and  sickly 
passage  from  Calcutta  by  sea.  Our  poor  baby  they  were  obliged 
to  leave  behind.  My  health  had  remained  good  all  the  journey, 
and  they  (thank  God)  are  now  perfectly  well  again.  We  are  now 
the  guests  of  Mr.  Elphinstone,  the  Governor  of  Bombay,  a  very 
clever  and  agreeable  man,  who  has  shown  us  a  degree  of  kindness 
seldom  met  with,  and  never  surpassed,  and  for  whose  brother, 
owing  to  some  likeness  of  comple.xion  and  features,  I  have  been 
pretty  generally  taken  by  the  Gaikwar  Raja  and  other  chiefs  of 
Guzerat  and  the  Concan.  Of  the  personal  resemblance  I  am 
myself  no  judge,  but  there  are  \-ery  many  points  on  \\  hich  I  should 
much  wish  to  be  like  him.  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  any  man  with 
whom,  on  so  short  an  acquaintance,  I  have  been  so  much  struck. 
He  is  a  very  active  and  fearless  patron  of  any  practicable  scheme 
for  the  advantage  and  improvement  of  the  Hindoos,  and  I  have 
been  enabled  since  my  arrival  not  only  to  set  on  foot  a  new  district 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  but  Emily  has  also 
collected  some  good  subscriptions  towards  the  school  for  native 
girls  at  Calcutta.  We  hope  next  week  to  pay  a  visit  to  Poona, 
five  days'  march  up  the  country,  and  soon  after  our  return  to 
embark  for  Calcutta,  staying  some  short  time  at  Ceylon.  Even 
in  Calcutta,  however,  I  cannot  hope  to  remain  long,  for  the  Presi- 
dency of  Madras  is  yet  unexplored,  and  sufficient  of  itself  to  occupy 
the  greater  part  of  next  year,  the  more  so  as  the  native  Christians, 
who  are  very  numerous  there,  amounting  to  considerably  more 
than  40,000  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  are,  unhappily, 
cjuarrelling  among  themselves,  and  have  applied  to  me  to  settle 
their  differences. 

"  Since  writing  the  greater  part  of  this  letter,  I  have  received 
your  kind  and  interesting  packet  of  2nd  December.  What  a  time 
for  a  letter  to  be  on  its  road  !  But  what  can  we  expect  with  half 
the  world  between  us  ?  You  say  nothing  of  your  own  health,  or 
that  of  your  family.  I  trust  that  this  is  equal  to  a  good  account 
of  all,  but  do  not  omit  it  again.  I  could  not  send  you  my  Charge, 
because  it  has  never  been  printed.  The  passage  which  appeared 
in  the  Christian  Roneinbraiicer  was  taken  from  a  newspaper  report. 
Thank  you  much  for  the  kind  pains  you  have  taken  for  our  girls' 
school,  but  do  not  trouble  yourself  any  more.  At  present  we  are, 
I  hope,  going  on  well.  I  have  received,  and  long  since  wrote  to 
thank  you  for  your  kind  and  gratifying  but  too  flattering  verses. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


249 


Your  hymn,  which  I  hke  very  much,  has  since  reached  me  during 
my  journey  through  Guzerat.  I,  alas!  have  no  time  for  verses 
now.  I  have  kept,  however,  a  tolerably  regular  Jour?ial,  and  have 
carried  off  some  drawings  and  other  memoranda  of  the  interest- 
ing scenes. 

"  I  have  not  yet  seen  any  engraving  of  my  portrait.  I  am 
sure  I  feel  highly  pleased  and  flattered  by  the  honourable  place 
which  dear  Anne  has  assigned  to  my  likeness,  and  by  your 
multiplication  of  it.  I  have  received  no  more  hymns  from  Mil- 
man,  and  think  of  preparing  for  the  press  the  collection  as  it 
now  stands.  You  are  very  good  still  to  recollect  and  adorn  my 
lines  with  your  pencil.  Adieu,  my  dear  friend  !  Emily  unites 
in  sending  her  love  to  yourself,  your  father,  mother,  and  sisters. 
God  bless  and  prosper  you  all !  May  you  long  continue  to  love 
Him  and  each  other,  and  do  not  forget  those  e.xiled  friends  who 
often,  \&xy  often,  talk  of  Edge  and  its  inhabitants  with  a  regard  and 
interest  which  neither  distance  nor  time  can  diminish.  Belie\e 
me,  my  dear  Charlotte,  ever  your  obliged  and  affectionate  friend, 

"R.  C. 

"  P.S. — Pray  remember  me  most  kindly  to  E.  Davenport  and 
Conny.  To  the  former  I  owe  a  long  and  interesting  letter,  in 
return  for  a  most  excellent  one  which  I  recei\  ed  from  him.  To 
the  latter,  for  her  kind  recollection  of  us,  her  good  wishes,  and 
her  prayers,  pray  say  anything  that  is  grateful  and  affectionate. 
Heaven  knows  we  have  all  great  need  of  the  prayers  of  our  friends, 
and  I  feel  that  need  more  and  more  as  I  see  more  of  this  great 
field  of  exertion,  and  am  made  more  sensible  of  my  own  insufficiency 
to  do  all  which  is  required  of  me." 

Archdeacon  Barnes  describes  Heber's  voice  and  counten- 
ance as  very  much  what  they  were  at  0.xford  seventeen  years 
before.  "His  manner  everywhere  is  exceedingly  popular, 
though  there  are  some  points,  such  as  his  wearing  white 
trousers  and  a  white  hat,i  which  I  could  wish  were  altered 
with  more  regard  to  his  station,  and  which,  perhaps,  strike 
me  the  more  after  being  accustomed  to  the  particular  at- 
tention of  Bishop  Middleton  in  such  points ;  yet  really  I  feel 
compelled  to  forgive  him  when  I  observe  his  unreserved 
frankness,  his  anxious  and  serious  wish  to  do  all  the  good  in 

'  On  his  journeys  the  Bishop  wore  a  white  so/a  pith  Iiat,  with  a  very  broad 
brim  (Hned  with  green  silk).  The  white  trousers  he  adopted  soon  after  his 
arrival  in  India,  from  their  greater  coolness,  and  he  rei  oniniended  them  to  his 
clergy  on  all  ordinary  occasions. 


250 


BISHOP  HEBER 


his  power,  his  truly  amiable  and  kindly  feelings,  his  talents 
and  piety,  and  his  extraordinary  powers  of  conversation, 
accompanied  with  so  much  cheerfulness  and  vivacity.  I  see 
the  advantage  which  Christianity  and  our  Church  must  possess 
in  such  a  character,  to  win  their  way  and  keep  all  together  in 
India." 

To  his  four  chief  friends,  Thornton,  Wynn,  Wilmot 
Horton,  and  Davenport,  and  to  his  old  curate  at  Hodnet, 
Blunt,  Heber  from  time  to  time  during  his  tour  revealed  his 
convictions  as  to  the  people  of  India,  and  the  only  means  of 
improving  permanently  their  condition.  Writing  to  R.  J. 
Wilmot  Horton,  Esq.,  on  the  variety  of  the  races  and  social 
customs  of  the  millions  of  Bengal,  Hindustan,  and  North 
Bombay,  on  their  degrading  superstitions,  and  on  the  ignor- 
ance shown  in  Parliament  on  such  subjects,  he  remarks  : — 

"Barreah  (Guzerat),  March  1824. 

"  I  met,  not  long  since,  with  a  speech  by  a  leading  member 
of  the  Scottish  General  Assembly,  declaring  his  '  conviction  that 
the  truths  of  Christianity  could  not  be  received  by  men  in  so 
rude  a  state  as  the  East  Indians  ;  and  that  it  was  necessary  to 
give  them  first  a  relish  for  the  habits  and  comforts  of  civilised 
life  before  they  could  embrace  the  truths  of  the  Gospel.'  The 
same  slang  (for  it  is  nothing  more)  I  have  seen  repeated  in  divers 
pamphlets,  and  even  heard  it  in  conversations  at  Calcutta.  Yet, 
though  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  lower  classes  of  Indians  are 
miserably  poor,  and  that  there  are  many  extensive  districts  where, 
both  among  low  and  high,  the  laws  are  very  little  obeyed,  and 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  robbery,  oppression,  and  even  ferocity,  I 
know  no  part  of  the  population,  e.xcept  the  mountain  tribes,  who 
can,  with  any  propriety  of  language,  be  called  uncivilised. 

"  Of  the  unpropitious  circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned, 
the  former  arises  from  a  population  continually  pressing  on  the 
utmost  limits  of  subsistence,  and  which  is  thus  kept  up,  not  by 
any  dislike  or  indifference  to  a  better  diet,  or  more  ample  cloth- 
ing, or  more  numerous  ornaments  than  now  usually  fall  to  the 
peasant's  share  (for,  on  the  contrary',  if  he  has  the  means  he  is 
fonder  of  external  show  and  a  respectable  appearance  than  those 
of  his  rank  in  many  nations  of  Europe),  but  by  the  foolish  super- 
stition, which  Christianity  only  is  likely  to  remove,  which  makes 
a  parent  regard  it  as  unpropitious  to  allow  his  son  to  remain  un- 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


251 


married,  and  which  couples  together  children  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  of  age.  The  second  has  its  origin  in  the  long-continued 
misfortunes  and  intestine  wars  of  India,  which  are  as  yet  too 
recent  (even  when  their  causes  have  ceased  to  exist)  for  the 
agitation  which  they  occasioned  to  have  entirely  sunk  into  a  calm. 
But  to  say  that  the  Hindoos  or  Musalmans  are  deficient  in  any 
essential  feature  of  a  civilised  people  is  an  assertion  which  I  can 
scarcely  suppose  to  be  made  by  any  who  have  lived  with  them. 
Their  manners  are,  at  least,  as  pleasing  and  courteous  as  those 
in  the  corresponding  stations  of  life  among  ourselves  ;  their 
houses  are  larger,  and,  according  to  their  wants  and  climate,  to 
the  full  as  convenient  as  ours  ;  their  architecture  is  at  least  as 
elegant. 

"...  With  subjects  thus  inquisitive,  and  with  opportunities  of 
information,  it  is  apparent  how  little  sense  there  is  in  the  doctrine 
that  we  must  keep  the  natives  of  Hindostan  in  ignorance,  if  we 
would  continue  to  govern  them.  The  fact  is,  that  they  know 
enough  already  to  do  us  a  great  deal  of  mischief  if  they  should 
find  it  their  interest  to  make  the  trial.  They  are  in  a  fair  way, 
by  degrees,  to  acquire  still  more  knowledge  for  themselves  ;  and 
the  question  is,  whether  it  is  not  the  part  of  wisdom,  as  well  as 
duty,  to  superintend  and  promote  their  education  while  it  is  yet 
in  our  power,  and  to  supply  them  with  such  knowledge  as  will  be 
at  once  most  harmless  to  ourselves,  and  most  useful  to  them. 

"  In  this  work  the  most  important  part  is  to  give  them  a 
better  religion.  Knowing  how  strongly  I  feel  on  this  subject,  you 
will  not  be  surprised  at  my  placing  it  foremost.  But  even  if 
Christianity  were  out  of  the  question,  and  if,  when  1  had  wheeled 
away  the  rubbish  of  the  old  pagodas,  I  had  nothing  better  than 
simple  Deism  to  erect  in  their  stead,  I  should  still  feel  some  of 
the  an.xiety  which  now  urges  me.  It  is  necessary  to  see  idolatry 
to  be  fully  sensible  of  its  mischievous  effects  on  the  human  mind. 
But  of  all  idolatries  which  I  have  ever  read  or  heard  of,  the 
religion  of  the  Hindoos,  in  which  I  have  taken  some  pains  to 
inform  myself,  really  appears  to  me  the  worst,  both  in  the  de- 
grading notions  which  it  gives  of  the  Deity  ;  in  the  endless  round 
of  its  burdensome  ceremonies,  which  occupy  the  time  and  distract 
the  thoughts,  without  either  instructing  or  interesting  its  votaries  ; 
in  the  filthy  acts  of  uncleanness  and  cruelty,  not  only  permitted 
but  enjoined,  and  inseparably  interwoven  with  those  ceremonies  ; 
in  the  system  of  castes,  a  system  which  tends,  more  than  anything 
else  the  Devil  has  yet  invented,  to  destroy  the  feelings  of  genera! 
benevolence,  and  to  make  nine-tenths  of  mankind  the  hopeless 


252 


BISHOP  HEBER 


slaves  of  the  remainder  ;  and  in  the  total  absence  of  any  popular 
system  of  morals,  or  any  single  lesson  which  the  people  at  large 
ever  hear,  to  live  virtuously  and  do  good  to  each  other.  I  do  not 
say,  indeed,  that  there  are  not  some  scattered  lessons  of  this  kind 
to  be  found  in  their  ancient  books  ;  but  those  books  are  neither 
accessible  to  the  people  at  large,  nor  are  these  last  permitted  to 
read  them  ;  and,  in  general,  all  the  sins  that  a  Soodra  is  taught 
to  fear  are,  killing  a  cow,  offending  a  Brahmin,  or  neglecting  one 
of  the  many  frivolous  rites  by  which  their  deities  are  supposed  to 
be  conciliated. 

"Accordingly,  though  the  general  sobriety  of  the  Hindoos 
(a  virtue  which  they  possess  in  common  with  most  inhabitants 
of  warm  climates)  affords  a  very  great  facility  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  public  order  and  decorum,  1  really  never  have  met 
with  a  race  of  men  whose  standard  of  morality  is  so  low,  who 
feel  so  little  apparent  shame  on  being  detected  in  a  falsehood,  or 
so  little  interest  in  the  sufferings  of  a  neighbour,  not  being  of 
their  own  caste  or  family  ;  whose  ordinary  and  familiar  conversa- 
tion is  so  licentious  ;  or,  in  the  wilder  and  more  lawless  districts, 
who  shed  blood  with  so  little  repugnance.  The  good  qualities 
which  there  are  among  them  (and,  thank  God,  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  good  among  them  still)  are,  in  no  instance  that  I  am 
aware  of,  connected  with  or  arising  out  of  their  religion,  since  it 
is  in  no  instance  to  good  deeds  or  virtuous  habits  of  life  that  the 
future  rewards  in  which  they  believe  are  promised.  Their  bravery, 
their  fidelity  to  their  employers,  their  temperance,  and  (wherever 
they  are  found)  their  humanity  and  gentleness  of  disposition 
appear  to  arise  exclusively  from  a  natural  happy  temperament, 
from  an  honourable  pride  in  their  own  renown  and  the  renown 
of  their  ancestors,  and  from  the  goodness  of  God,  who  seems  un- 
willing that  His  image  should  be  entirely  defaced  even  in  the 
midst  of  the  grossest  error.  The  Musalmans  have  a  far  better 
creed,  and,  though  they  seldom  either  like  the  English,  or  are 
liked  by  them,  I  am  inclined  to  think  are,  on  the  whole,  a  better 
people.  Yet,  even  with  them,  the  forms  of  their  worship  have  a 
natural  tendency  to  make  men  hypocrites,  and  the  overweening 
contempt  with  which  they  are  inspired  for  all  the  world  beside, 
the  degradation  of  their  women  by  the  system  of  polygamy,  and 
the  detestable  crimes  which,  owing  to  this  degradation,  are  almost 
universal,  are  such  as,  even  if  I  had  no  ulterior  hope,  would 
make  me  anxious  to  attract  them  to  a  better  or  more  harmless 
system. 

"  In  this  work,  thank  God,  in  those  parts  of  India  which  I 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


253 


have  visited,  a  beginning  has  been  made,  and  a  degree  of  success 
obtained  at  least  commensurate  to  the  few  years  during  which 
our  missionaries  have  laboured  ;  and  it  is  still  going  on  in  the 
best  and  safest  way,  as  the  work  of  private  persons  alone,  and, 
although  not  forbidden,  in  no  degree  encouraged  by  Government. 
In  the  meantime,  and  as  a  useful  auxiliary  to  the  missionaries, 
the  establishment  of  elementary  schools  for  the  lower  classes  and 
for  females  is  going  on  to  a  very  great  extent,  and  might  be 
carried  to  any  conceivable  extent  to  which  our  pecuniary  means 
would  carry  us.  Nor  is  there  any  measure  from  which  I  antici- 
pate more  speedy  benefit  than  the  elevation  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion of  females  to  their  natural  rank  in  society,  and  giving  them 
(which  is  all  that,  in  any  of  our  schools,  we  as  yet  venture  to 
give)  the  lessons  of  general  morality  extracted  from  the  Gospel, 
without  any  direct  religious  instruction.  These  schools,  such  of 
them  at  least  as  I  have  any  concern  with,  are  carried  on  without 
any  help  from  Government.  Government  has,  however,  been 
very  liberal  in  its  grants,  both  to  a  Society  for  National  Educa- 
tion, and  in  the  institution  and  support  of  two  colleges  of 
Hindoo  students  of  riper  age,  the  one  at  Benares,  the  other  at 
Calcutta.  But  I  do  not  think  any  of  these  institutions,  in  the 
way  after  which  they  are  at  present  conducted,  likely  to  do  much 
good.  In  the  elementary  schools  supported  by  the  former, 
through  a  very  causeless  and  ridiculous  fear  of  giving  offence  to 
the  natives,  they  have  forbidden  the  use  of  the  Scriptures,  or  any 
extracts  from  them,  though  the  moral  lessons  of  the  Gospel  are 
read  by  all  Hindoos  who  can  get  hold  of  them,  without  scruple, 
and  with  much  attention  ;  and  though  their  exclusion  is  tanta- 
mount to  excluding  all  moral  instruction  from  their  schools,  the 
Hindoo  sacred  w-ritings  have  nothing  of  the  kind,  and,  if  they 
had,  being  shut  up  from  the  majority  of  the  people  by  the  double 
fence  of  a  dead  language,  and  an  actual  prohibition  to  read  them, 
as  too  holy  for  common  eyes  or  ears.  The  defects  of  the  latter 
will  appear,  when  I  have  told  you  that  the  actual  state  of  Hindoo 
and  Musalman  literature,  viutatis  mutandis,  very  nearly  re- 
sembles what  the  literature  of  Europe  was  before  the  time  of 
Galileo,  Copernicus,  and  Bacon. 

"...  In  Benares  I  found  in  the  institution  supported  by 
Government  a  professor  lecturing  on  astronomy  after  the  system 
of  Ptolemy  and  Albunazar,  while  one  of  the  most  forward  boys 
was  at  the  pains  of  casting  my  horoscope  ;  and  the  majority  of 
the  school  were  toiling  at  Sanskrit  grammar.  And  yet  the  day 
before,  in  the  same  holy  city,  I  had  visited  another  college, 


254 


BISHOP  HEBER 


founded  lately  by  a  wealthy  Hindoo  banker,  and  entrusted  by  him 
to  the  management  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  in  which, 
besides  a  grammatical  knowledge  of  the  Hindostani  language, 
as  well  as  Persian  and  Arabic,  the  senior  boys  could  pass  a  good 
examination  in  English  grammar,  in  Hume's  History  of  England, 
Joyce's  Scientific  Dialogues^  the  use  of  the  globes,  and  the 
principal  facts  and  moral  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  most  of  them 
writing  beautifully  in  the  Persian,  and  very  tolerably  in  the 
English  character,  and  excelling  most  boys  I  have  met  with  in 
the  accuracy  and  readiness  of  their  arithmetic.  .  .  .  Ram  Mohun 
Roy,  a  learned  native,  who  has  sometimes  been  called,  though  I 
fear  without  reason,  a  Christian,  remonstrated  against  this  system 
last  year,  in  a  paper  which  he  sent  me  to  be  put  into  Lord 
Amherst's  hands,  and  which,  for  its  good  English,  good  sense, 
and  forcible  arguments,  is  a  real  curiosity,  as  coming  from  an 
Asiatic. 

"  I  have  not  since  been  in  Calcutta,  and  know  not  whether 
any  improvement  has  occurred  in  consequence.  But  from 
the  unbounded  attachment  to  Sanskrit  literature  displayed  by 
some  of  those  who  chiefly  manage  those  affairs,  I  have  no 
great  expectation  of  the  kind.  Of  the  value  of  the  acquirements 
which  so  much  is  sacrificed  to  retain,  I  can  only  judge  from 
translations,  and  they  certainly  do  not  seem  to  me  worth  picking 
out  of  the  rubbish  under  which  they  were  sinking.  Some  of  the 
poetry  of  the  Mahabarat,  I  am  told,  is  good,  and  I  think  a  good 
deal  of  the  Ramayun  pretty.  But  no  work  has  yet  been  pro- 
duced which  even  pretends  to  be  authentic  histor>'.  No  useful 
discoveries  in  science  are,  I  believe,  so  much  as  expected,  and  I 
ha\  e  no  great  sympathy  with  those  students  who  value  a  worth- 
less tract,  merely  because  it  calls  itself  old,  or  a  language  which 
teaches  nothing,  for  the  sake  of  its  copiousness  and  intricacy.  If 
I  were  to  run  wild  after  Oriental  learning,  I  should  certainly 
follow  that  of  the  Musalmans,  whose  histories  seem  really  very 
much  like  those  of  Europe,  and  whose  poetry,  so  far  as  I  am  yet 
able  to  judge,  has  hardly  had  justice  done  to  it  in  the  ultra- 
flowery  translations  which  have  appeared  in  the  West.  But, 
after  all,  I  will  own  that  my  main  quarrel  with  the  institutions 
which  I  have  noticed  is  their  needless  and  systematic  exclusion 
of  the  Gospels,  since  they  not  only  do  less  good  than  they  might 
have  done,  but  are,  actually,  in  my  opinion,  productive  of  serious 
harm,  by  awakening  the  dormant  jealousy  of  the  native  against 
the  schools  which  pursue  a  different  system." 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


255 


Six  years  after  that  remarkable  criticism  was  written,  un- 
consciously reproducing  the  opinions  of  Charles  Grant  in 
1792,  Alexander  Duff  founded  his  Calcutta  College  and, 
side  by  side  with  Macaulay,  under  Lord  William  Bentinck, 
started  the  people  of  India  on  the  new  era  of  progress,  of 
which  Christianity  alone,  in  the  history  of  mankind,  has  proved 
to  be  the  salt.  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward  had  begun  the 
revolution,  especially  in  their  Serampore  College,  which  was 
opened  in  182 1.  On  receiving  the  third  Annual  Report  of 
the  College  from  Dr.  Marshman,  Heber  replied  with  fine 
catholicity : — 

"  yd  June  1824. 

"  I  have  seldom  felt  more  painfully  than  while  reading  your 
appeal  on  the  subject  of  Serampore  College,  the  unhappy  divisions 
of  those  who  are  servants  of  the  same  Great  Master.  Would  to 
God,  my  honoured  brethren,  the  time  were  arrived  when  not  only 
in  heart  and  hope,  but  visibly,  we  shall  be  one  fold,  as  well  as 
under  one  shepherd  !  In  the  meantime,  I  have  arrived,  after 
some  serious  considerations,  at  the  conclusion  that  I  shall  serve 
our  great  cause  most  effectually  by  doing  all  which  I  can  for  the 
rising  institutions  of  those  with  whom  my  sentiments  agree  in  all 
things,  rather  than  by  forwarding  the  labours  of  those  from  whom, 
in  some  important  points,  I  am  conscientiously  constrained 
to  differ.  After  all,  why  do  we  differ  ?  Surely  the  leading 
points  which  keep  us  asunder  are  capable  of  explanation 
or  of  softening,  and  I  am  expressing  myself  in  much  sincerity 
of  heart  (though,  perhaps,  according  to  the  customs  of  the 
world,  I  am  taking  too  great  a  freedom  with  men  my  superiors 
both  in  age  and  in  talent)  —  that  I  should  think  myself 
happy  to  be  permitted  to  explain,  to  the  best  of  my  power, 
those  objections  which  keep  you  and  your  brethren  divided  from 
that  form  of  church  government  which  I  believe  to  have  been 
instituted  by  the  Apostles,  and  that  admission  of  infants  to  the 
Gospel  Covenants  which  seems  to  me  to  be  founded  on  the  ex- 
pressions and  practice  of  Christ  Himself  If  I  were  writing  thus 
to  worldly  men,  I  know  I  should  expose  myself  to  the  imputation  of 
excessive  vanity  or  impertinent  intrusion.  But  of  you  and  Dr. 
Carey  I  am  far  from  judging  as  of  worldly  men,  and  I  therefore 
say  that  if  we  are  spared  to  have  any  future  intercourse,  it  is  my 
desire,  if  you  permit,  to  discuss  with  both  of  you,  in  the  spirit  of 
meekness  and  conciliation,  the  points  which  now  divide  us,  con- 


256 


BISHOP  HEBER 


vinced  that  if  a  reunion  of  our  churches  could  be  effected,  the 
harvest  of  the  heathen  would  ere  long  be  reaped,  and  the  work 
of  the  Lord  would  advance  among  them  with  a  celerity  of  which 
we  have  now  no  experience. 

"  I  trust,  at  all  events,  you  will  take  this  hasty  note  as  it  is 
intended,  and  believe  me,  with  much  sincerity,  your  friend  and 
servant  in  Christ,  Reginald  Calcutta." 

Mr.  John  Clark  Marshman,  C.S.I.,  at  that  time  a  young 
man  of  thirty,  who  had  just  .succeeded  Ward  in  the  famous 
Brotherhood,  describes  the  effect  of  Heber's  short  career  thus  : 
"  It  would  not  be  easy  to  name  any  individual  who  has  ever 
succeeded  to  the  same  extent  in  acquiring  the  universal  esteem 
of  society  in  India  by  his  frank  and  amiable  deportment.  .  .  . 
The  country  was  soon  filled  with  anecdotes  of  his  anti-official 
proceedings  and  his  contempt  for  established  forms  and 
u.sages,  but  he  acquired  more  weight  on  society  by  the 
simplicity  of  his  character  than  he  could  have  done  by  any 
ecclesiastical  assumption.  His  anxiety  to  employ  the  influ- 
ence of  his  position  for  the  religious  improvement  of  the 
country  endeared  him  to  the  wise  and  good.  .  .  .  Soon  after 
his  arrival  he  opened  a  friendly  correspondence  with  the 
Serampore  missionaries,  which  was  continued  without  inter- 
ruption to  the  period  of  his  death."  ^  William  Carey's  com- 
mentary on  the  letter  was  this  :  "  Bishop  Heber  is  a  man  of 
liberal  principles  and  catholic  spirit." 

Heber's  apology  to  Mr.  Blunt  for  infrequent  letters  gives 
us  unconsciously  the  most  vivid  picture  of  the  varied  and  the 
exacting  labours  which  he  crowded,  with  loving  cheerful- 
ness, into  his  short  episcopate,  while  he  ever  remembered 
Hodnet : — 

"Bombay,  \oih Jum  1825. 
" .  .  .  As  nothing  which  concerns  the  duties  of  the  clergy  can 
be  settled  without  a  reference  to  Government,  I  have,  in  fact,  at 
least  two  sets  of  letters  to  write  and  receive  in  every  important 
matter  which  comes  before  me.  As  visitor  of  Bishop's  College  I 
receive  almost  every  week  six  or  seven  sheets  of  close  writing  on 
the  subject.    I  am  called  on  to  give  an  opinion  on  the  architec- 


1  The  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  Marshjnati  and  Ward,  vol.  ii. ,  London 
(Longmans),  1859. 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


257 


ture,  expense,  and  details  of  every  church  which  is  built,  or  pro- 
posed to  be  built  in  India  ;  every  application  for  salary  of  cither 
clerk,  sexton,  schoolmaster,  or  bellringer  must  pass  through 
my  hands,  and  be  recommended  in  a  letter  to  Government.  I 
am  literally  the  conductor  of  all  the  Missions  in  the  three  Pre- 
sidencies ;  and,  what  is  most  serious  of  all,  I  am  obliged  to  act 
in  almost  cscrything  from  my  own  single  judgment,  and  on  my 
own  single  responsibility,  without  any  more  experienced  person  to 
consult,  or  any  precedent  to  guide  me.  I  have,  besides,  not  only 
the  Indian  clergy  and  the  Indian  Government  to  correspond  with, 
but  the  religious  societies  at  home,  whose  agent  I  am,  and  to 
whom  I  must  send  occasional  letters,  the  composition  of  each  of 
which  occupies  me  many  days  ;  while,  in  the  scarcity  of  clergy 
which  is,  and  must  be  felt  here,  I  feel  myself  bound  to  preach,  in 
some  one  or  other  of  the  churches  or  stations,  no  less  frequently 
than  when  I  \\  as  in  England. 

"  All  this,  w^hen  one  is  stationary  at  Calcutta,  may  be  done, 
indeed,  without  difficulty  ;  but  my  journeys  throw  me  sadly  into 
arrears,  and  you  may  easily  believe,  therefore,  not  only  that  I 
am  obliged  to  let  slip  many  opportunities  of  writing  to  my  friends 
at  home,  but  that  my  leisure  for  study  amounts  to  little  or 
nothing,  and  that  even  the  native  languages,  in  which  it  has  been 
my  earnest  desire  to  perfect  myself,  I  am  compelled  to  acquire 
very  slowly,  and  by  conversation  more  than  by  reading.  With 
all  this,  however,  in  spite  of  the  many  disadvantages  of  climate 
and  banishment,  I  am  bound  to  confess  that  I  like  both  my  em- 
ployments and  my  present  country.  The  work  is  as  much  as  I 
can  do,  and  more  than,  I  fear,  I  can  do  well  ;  but  a  great  deal 
of  it  is  of  a  very  interesting  nature,  and  India  itself  I  find  so  full 
of  natural  beauties  and  relics  of  ancient  art,  and  there  are  so 
many  curious  topics  of  inquiry  or  speculation  connected  with  the 
history  and  character  of  its  inhabitants,  their  future  fortunes,  and 
the  policy  of  Great  Britain  concerning  them,  that  in  every  ride 
which  I  have  taken,  and  in  every  wilderness  in  which  my  tent  has 
been  pitched,  I  have  as  yet  found  enough  to  keep  my  mind  from 
sinking  into  the  languor  and  apathy  which  have  been  regarded  as 
natural  to  a  tropical  climate. 

"...  The  labours  of  our  missionaries  in  those  parts  of  India 
which  I  ha\-e  seen  have  not  as  yet  produced  any  great  or  strik- 
ing show  of  converts,  but  they  have  undoubtedly  been  as  success- 
ful as  could  fairly  be  expected,  considering  the  short  time  which 
has  elapsed  since  the  attention  of  the  English  Church  was  called 
to  this  new  harvest.  In  the  south  the  number  of  native  Chris- 
S 


258 


BISHOP  HEBER 


tians,  even  without  reckoning  the  Syrian  and  Romish  churches, 
is  great,  and  has  been  stated  to  me  on  the  best  authority  as 
between  40,000  and  50,000.  And  I  have  myself  set  on  foot  a 
new  mission  among  the  Paharees,  whose  different  ramifications 
extend  from  Rajmahal  on  the  Ganges,  through  all  Central  India, 
to  the  Deccan  and  the  Arabian  Sea,  which  already  wears  a  pro- 
mising appearance,  and  from  which  I  anticipate,  perhaps  too 
sanguinely,  very  great  advantage. 

"  Many  thanks  for  the  interesting  details  which  you  have  sent 
me  of  your  own  pursuits,  and  of  our  beloved  little  flock  at  Hodnet. 
I  rejoice  that  you  have  become  acquainted  with  my  excellent  and 
kind-hearted  uncle  and  aunt,  whom  nobody  can  know  without 
loving  and  valuing.  Your  accounts  of  the  poor  old  people  have 
carried  me  back  very  forcibly  (I  hardly  know  whether  painfully 
or  agreeably)  to  some  of  the  happiest  days  of  my  life,  though  I 
have  never  had  reason  to  complain  of  a  want  of  happiness,  and 
you  will  much  oblige  me  by  remembering  me  most  kindly  to 
some  of  my  best-known  parishioners.  May  I  also  request  of  you 
to  take  charge  of  ten  pounds,  to  distribute  next  Christmas  among 
any  of  the  inhabitants  who  need  it  most." 

From  Bombay  also  Heber  sent  what  proved  to  be  his  last 
letter  to  Maria  Leycester  : — 

"Bombay,  yd  June  1825. 
".  .  .  It  has  not  been  altogether  business  which  has  pre- 
vented my  writing  ;  for,  busy  as  I  have  been  and  must  always  be, 
I  could  still  long  since  have  found  or  made  time  to  say  how 
gratified  I  am  by  your  keeping  me  in  recollection,  and  with  how 
much  eagerness  I  open  letters  which  bring  me  near  to  such  valued 
friends  at  so  great  a  distance,  and  which  call  me  back,  as  yours 
do,  for  a  time,  from  the  broad,  arid  plain  of  Rohilkhund  to  the 
quiet  lanes  and  hedgerow  walks  of  Stoke  or  Hodnet.  There  are, 
however,  alas  !  so  many  painful  associations  connected  with  my 
handwriting  since  the  period  of  my  letters  to  Augustus  and  Mrs. 
Stanley,  that  I  have  felt,  to  say  the  truth,  a  strange  reluctance  to 
address  a  letter  to  you,  out  of  a  fear  to  disturb  afresh  the  grief  of 
an  affectionate  and  innocent  heart,  which  had  been  so  severe  a 
sufferer  by  the  events  which  took  place  at  the  commencement 
of  my  present  journey.  .  .  .  For  myself — 


"  '  My  tent  on  shore,  my  pinnace  on  the 
Are  more  than  cities  or  serais  to  me. ' 


ALMORA  TO  BOMBAY 


259 


So  far  as  enjoyment  only  is  concerned,  I  know  nothing  more 
agreeable  than  the  continual  change  of  scene  and  air,  the  exercise, 
the  good  hours,  the  good  appetite,  the  temperance,  and  the  free- 
dom from  the  forms  and  visiting  of  a  city  life  to  which  we  are 
enabled  or  compelled  by  a  long  march,  encamping  daily  with  our 
little  caravan  through  even  a  moderately  interesting  country,  nor, 
except  during  the  intense  heat  and  the  annual  deluge  of  rain 
(which,  by  the  way,  it  must  be  owned,  occupies  one  half  of  our 
tropical  calendar),  I  should  desire  no  other  than  a  canvas  roof 
during  the  rest  of  my  abode  in  India.  Many  indeed  as  the  dis- 
comforts and  dangers  of  India  are  (and  surely  there  are  few  lands 
on  earth  where  death  so  daily  and  hourly  knocks  at  our  doors,  or 
where  men  have  so  constant  warning  to  hold  themselves  in  readi- 
ness to  meet  their  Maker),  and  much  as,  I  cannot  help  feeling,  I 
sacrificed  in  coming  hither,  I  have  never  yet  repented  my  deter- 
mination, or  have  ceased  to  be  thankful  to  God  for  the  varied 
interest,  the  amalgamated  knowledge,  and,  I  hope  and  think,  the 
augmented  means  of  usefulness  which  this  new  world  has  supplied 
to  me.  .  .  . 

"Adieu,  dear  Maria.  That  you  may  be  blessed  with  all 
temporal  and  eternal  happiness  is  the  earnest  wish  of  your  sincere 
and  affectionate  friend,  R.  Calcutta." 


CHAPTER  XI 


BOMBAY   AND  CEYLON 
182s 

A  RESIDENCE  of  four  moiiths  in  Bombay  and  Poena  delighted 
Reginald  Heber,  although  continued  overwork  in  the  hot  and 
rainy  seasons  caused  the  fever  of  the  earlier  part  of  his  tour 
to  be  succeeded  by  dysentery.  The  sea,  the  beauty  of  the 
position,  the  races  of  Asia  and  Africa  of  whom  it  is  the  almost 
imperial  centre,  the  cave  temples  and  the  society  of  his  host, 
the  Governor,  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  were  all  sources  of 
fresh  delight,  which  he  shared  with  his  wife.  To  his  sister 
he  wrote  this  description  of  the  city,  contrasting  it  with 
Calcutta : — 

"Bombay,  wth  May  1825. 
" .  .  .  Of  Bombay,  from  my  own  experience,  I  should  judge 
favourably.  Its  climate  appears,  in  productions,  in  temperature, 
and  other  respects,  pretty  closely  to  resemble  the  West  India 
islands,  its  heat,  like  theirs,  tempered  by  the  sea  breeze,  and  more 
fortunate  far  than  they  are  in  the  absence  of  yellow  fever.  But 
I  know  not  why,  except  it  may  be  from  the  excessive  price  of  all 
the  comforts  of  life  on  this  side  of  India,  the  provisions  made 
against  heat  are  so  much  less  than  those  in  Calcutta,  that  we  feel 
it  quite  as  much  here  as  there  ;  and  the  European  inhabitants  do 
not  seem  either  more  florid,  or  at  all  more  healthy  than  in 
Calcutta.  On  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  since  I  can- 
not live  at  Meerut,  Calcutta  is  the  best  place  in  which  my  lot 
could  be  thrown  (as  it  is  certainly  the  place  in  which  the  most 
extensive  and  interesting  society  is  usually  to  be  met  with),  and 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


261 


both  my  wife  and  myself  look  forwards  to  returning  thither  with 
an  anxiety  which  you  will  easily  believe  when  you  know  that  she 
was  obliged  to  leave  her  little  Harriet  there. 

"  Inferior,  however,  as  Bombay  is  to  Calcutta  in  many  re- 
spects, in  some,  besides  climate,  it  has  very  decidedly  the  advan- 
tage. With  me,  the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea  is  one  of  these 
points  ;  nor  is  there  any  sea  in  the  world  more  beautifully  blue, 
bordered  by  more  woody  and  picturesque  mountains,  and  peopled 
with  more  picturesque  boats  and  fishermen,  than  this  part  of  the 
Indian  Ocean.  I  know  and  fully  participate  in  your  fondness  for 
lateen  sails.  They  are  here  in  full  perfection  ;  nor  do  they  ever 
look  better  than  when  seen  gliding  under  high  basaltic  cliffs,  their 
broad  white  triangles  contrasted  with  the  dark  feathers  of  the 
coco-palm,  or  when  furled  and  handled  by  their  wild  Mediterranean- 
looking  mariners,  with  red  caps,  naked  limbs,  and  drawers  of 
striped  cotton.  All  these  features  are  peculiar  to  the  Malabaric 
or  western  coast  of  India,  and  are  a  few  out  of  many  symptoms 
which  have  struck  me  very  forcibly  of  our  comparative  approach  to 
the  European  Levant,  and  the  closer  intercourse  which  is  kept  up 
here  with  Arabia,  Egypt,  and  Persia.  In  Calcutta  we  hear  little 
of  these  countries.  In  Bombay  they  are  constant  topics  of  con- 
versation. It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  a  very  considerable 
proportion  of  the  civil  and  military  officers  here  have  visited 
either  the  Nile  or  the  Euphrates  ;  arrivals  from  Yemen,  Abyssinia, 
or  the  Persian  Gulph  occupy  a  good  part  of  our  usual  morning's 
discussion.  The  sea-shore  is  lined  every  morning  and  evening  by 
the  Parsee  worshippers  of  the  sun  ;  Arab  and  Abyssinian  seamen 
throng  the  streets  ;  and  I  met  the  day  before  yesterday,  at  break- 
fast with  the  Governor,  an  Krah  post  captain ;  or  at  least,  if  this 
title  is  refused  him,  the  conimancler  of  a  frigate  in  the  navy  of  the 
Imam  of  Muscat.  He  is  a  smart  little  man,  a  dandy  in  his 
way,  speaks  good  English,  and  is  reckoned  an  extremely  good 
seaman. 

"  The  society  of  Bombay  is,  of  course,  made  up  of  the  same 
elements  with  that  of  Calcutta,  from  which  it  only  differs  in  being 
less  numerous.  The  Governor,  Mr.  Elphinstone,  is  the  cleverest 
and  most  agreeable  man  whom  I  have  yet  met  with  in  India, 
and  the  public  man  of  all  others  who  seems  to  have  the 
happiness  and  improvement  of  the  Indians  most  closely  and  con- 
tinually at  heart.  He  reminds  me  very  often  of  the  Duke  of 
Richelieu,  when  Goxernor  of  Odessa,  but  has  more  business-like 
talents  than  he  had.  .  .  .  His  popularity  is  also  \-ery  remarkable. 
I  have  found  scarcely  any  person  who  does  not  speak  well  of  him. 


262 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Emily  and  I  have  reason  to  do  so,  for  we  are  his  guests,  and  the 
more  we  see  of  him  we  like  him  the  better." 

Heber,  with  his  love  for  architectural  drawing,  lost  no  time 
in  visiting  the  Brahmanical  shrines  cut  into  the  trap  rock  of 
Elephanta  Island  about  the  eighth  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  and  the  many  Buddhist  caves  excavated  in  the  volcanic 
breccia  of  Kanheri  in  Salsette,  at  periods  stretching  back  to  a 
time  before  Christ.  A  few  years  before  this,  William  Erskine, 
the  historian  and  son-in-law  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  had  for 
the  first  time  done  justice  to  the  former  in  his  Account  of  the 
Cave  Temple  of  Elephanta.  The  learned  missionaries  of  the 
Scottish  Society,  John  Stevenson  and  John  Wilson,^  were  soon 
to  put  the  whole  subject  on  a  scientific  basis  by  finding  the 
key  to  the  inscriptions  which  James  Prinsep  used  with  good 
effect : — 

"8M  May  1825. 

"The  Island  of  Elephanta,  or  Gharapoori,  is  larger  and  more 
beautiful  than  I  expected.  The  major  part  is  very  beautiful  wood 
and  rock,  being  a  double-pointed  hill  rising  from  the  sea  to  some 
height  (250  feet).  The  stone  elephant,  from  which  the  usual 
Portuguese  name  is  derived,  stands  in  a  field  about  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  the  right  of  the  usual  landing-place.  It  is  about  three 
times  as  big  as  life,  rudely  sculptured,  and  \  ery  much  dilapidated 
by  the  weather.'-  The  animal  on  its  back,  which  Mr.  Erskine 
supposed  to  be  a  tiger,  has  no  longer  any  distinguishable  shape. 
From  the  landing-place  a  steep  and  narrow  path,  but  practicable 
for  palanquins,  leads  up  the  hill,  winding  prettily  through  woods 
and  on  the  banks  of  precipices,  so  as  very  much  to  remind  me  of 
Hawkstone.  About  half  a  mile  up  is  the  first  cave,  which  is  a 
sort  of  portico  supported  by  two  pillars  and  two  pilasters,  and 
seeming  as  if  intended  for  the  entrance  to  a  rock  temple  which 
has  not  been  proceeded  in.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  farther,  and  two- 
thirds  of  the  ascent  up  the  higher  of  the  two  hills,  is  the  great 


1  See  Life  of  John  Wihoti,  D.D..  F.R.S.  (John  Murray),  chap.  x.  Also 
for  the  latest  archaeological  and  architectural  results,  The  Cave  Temples  of 
India,  by  James  Fergusson  and  James  Burgess,  London,  1880. 

-  When  the  present  writer  first  visited  Hephanta  in  1864,  the  figure  had 
collapsed  into  stones,  which  had  been  removed  to  the  Victoria  Gardens  in 
Bomlxay.  See  The  Rock  Tem/>les  of  Eltfhanta  or  Gharapuri,  by  Dr. 
Burgess,  C.I.E.,  Bombay,  1871  (Thacker). 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


263 


cavern,  in  a  magnificent  situation,  and  deserving  all  the  praise 
which  has  been  lavished  on  it.  Though  my  expectations  were 
highly  raised,  the  reality  much  exceeded  them  ;  the  dimensions, 
the  proportions,  and  the  sculpture  seemed  to  me  to  be  of  a 
more  noble  character,  and  a  more  elegant  execution  than  I  had 
been  led  to  suppose.  Even  the  statues  are  executed  with  great 
spirit,  and  are  some  of  them  of  no  common  beauty,  considering 
their  dilapidated  condition  and  the  coarseness  of  their  material. 

"  At  the  upper  end  of  the  principal  cave,  which  is  in  the  form 
of  a  cross,  and  exceedingly  resembles  the  plan  of  an  ancient 
basilica,  is  an  enonnous  bust  with  three  faces,  reaching  from  the 
pavement  to  the  ceiling  of  the  temple.  It  has  generally  been 
supposed,  and  is  so  even  by  Mr.  Erskine,  a  representation  of  the 
Trimurti,  or  Hindoo  trinity,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva.  But 
more  recent  discoveries  have  ascertained  that  Siva  himself,  to 
whose  worship  and  ad\  entures  most  of  the  other  ornaments  of  the 
cave  refer,  is  sometimes  represented  with  three  faces,  so  that  the 
temple  is  evidently  one  to  the  popular  deity  of  the  modern 
Hindoos  alone.  Nor  could  I  help  remarking  that  the  style  of 
ornament  and  proportions  of  the  pillars,  the  dress  of  the  figures, 
and  all  the  other  circumstances  of  the  place,  are  such  as  may  be 
seen  at  this  day  in  every  temple  of  Central  India,  and  among  all 
those  Indian  nations  where  the  fashions  of  the  Musalmans  have 
made  but  little  progress.  Those  travellers  who  fancied  the  con- 
trary had  seen  little  of  India  but  Bombay.  From  these  circum- 
stances, then,  nothing  can  be  learned  as  to  the  anticjuity  of  this 
wonderful  cavern,  and  I  am  myself  disposed,  for  several  reasons, 
to  think  that  this  is  not  very  remote. 

"  The  rock  out  of  which  the  temple  is  carved  is  by  no  means 
calculated  to  resist  for  any  great  length  of  time  the  ravages  of  the 
weather.  It  evidently  suffers  much  from  the  annual  rains  ;  a 
great  number  of  the  pillars  (nearly  one-third  of  the  whole)  have 
been  undermined  by  the  accumulation  of  water  in  the  cavern, 
and  the  capitals  of  some,  and  part  of  the  shafts  of  others,  remain 
suspended  from  the  tops  like  huge  stalactites,  the  bases  having 
completely  mouldered  away.  These  ravages  are  said  to  have 
greatly  increased  in  the  memory  of  persons  now  resident  in 
Bombay,  though  for  many  years  back  the  cave  has  been  protected 
from  wanton  depredation,  and  though  the  sculptures,  rather  than 
the  pillars,  would  probably  have  suffered  from  that  vulgar  love  of 
knick-knacks  and  specimens  which  prevails  among  the  English 
more  than  most  nations  of  the  world. 

"A  similar  rapidity  of  decomposition  has  occurred  in  the 


264 


BISHOP  HEBER 


elephant  already  spoken  of,  which,  when  Niebuhr  saw  it,  was,  by 
his  account,  far  more  perfect  than  it  now  is.  But  if  thirty  or 
forty  years  can  have  produced  such  changes  in  this  celebrated 
temple,  it  is  hardly  reasonable  to  suppose  that  any  part  of  it  is 
so  old  as  is  sometimes  apprehended.  It  has  been  urged,  as  a 
ground  for  this  apprehension,  that  the  Hindoos  of  the  present 
day  pay  no  reverence  to  this  temple  or  its  images.  This  is  not 
altogether  true,  since  I  myself  noticed  very  recent  marks  of  red 
paint  on  one  of  the  lingams,  and  flowers  are  notoriously  offered 
up  here  by  the  people  of  the  island.  It  is,  however,  certainly  not 
a  famous  place  among  the  Hindoos.  No  pilgrims  come  hither 
from  a  distance,  nor  are  there  any  Brahmans  stationar)'  at  the 
shrine.  But  this  proves  nothing  as  to  its  antiquity,  inasmuch  as 
the  celebrity  of  a  place  of  worship,  with  them,  depends  on  many 
circumstances  quite  distinct  from  the  size  and  majesty  of  the 
building.  ...  It  has  been  urged  that  the  size  and  majesty  of  the 
excavation  compel  us  to  suppose  that  it  must  have  been  made  by 
some  powerful  Hindoo  sovereign,  and,  consequently,  before  the 
first  Musalman  invasion.  This  would  be  no  very  appalling 
antiquity  ;  but  even  for  this  there  is  no  certain  ground.  The 
expense  and  labour  of  the  undertaking  are  really  by  no  means  so 
enormous  as  might  be  fancied.  The  whole  cavern  is  a  mere 
trifle  in  point  of  extent,  when  compared  with  the  great  salt  mine 
at  North^ich  ;  and  there  are  now,  and  always  have  been,  rajas 
and  wealthy  merchants  in  India  who,  though  not  enjoying  the 
rank  of  independent  sovereigns,  are  not  unequal  to  the  task  of 
hewing  a  huge  stone  cjuarry  into  a  cathedral.  On  the  whole,  in 
the  perfect  absence  of  any  inscription  or  tradition  which  might 
guide  us,  we  may  assign  to  Elephanta  any  date  we  please.  It 
may  be  as  old  as  the  Parthenon,  or  it  may  be  as  modem 
as  Henry  VI I. 's  Chapel.  But  though  the  truth  probably  lies 
between  the  two,  I  am  certainly  not  disposed  to  assign  to  it  any 
great  degree  of  antiquity." 

Heber's  cultured  instinct  was  right.  On  architectural 
evidence  Mr.  Fergusson  places  the  execution  of  the  work  not 
earlier  than  750  a.d.  In  the  same  hot  month  of  May  the 
insatiable  Bishop  and  his  wife  made  a  tour  through  the 
Island  of  Salsette,  at  the  head  of  Bombay  Harbour.  Mount- 
stuart  Elphinstone  was  encamped  at  the  Tulsi  lake,  which 
now  supplies  Bombay  city  with  water,  where  they  joined  his 
Excellency  and  a  large  party  : — 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


26s 


"  2S//2  May  1825. 

"  Salsette  is  a  very  beautiful  island,  united  with  the  smaller  one 
of  Bombay  by  a  causeway,  built  in  the  time  of  Governor  Duncan. 
The  principal  curiosities,  and  those  which  were  our  main  object  in 
this  little  tour,  are  the  cave  temples  of  Kanheri.  These  are 
certainly  in  every  way  remarkable,  from  their  number,  their  beauti- 
ful situation,  their  elaborate  carving,  and  their  marked  connection 
with  Buddh  and  his  religion.  The  ca\es  are  scattered  over  two 
sides  of  a  high  rocky  hill,  at  many  different  elevations,  and  of  various 
sizes  and  forms.  Most  of  them  appear  to  have  been  places  of 
habitation  for  monks  or  hermits.  One  very  beautiful  apartment, 
of  a  square  form,  its  walls  covered  with  sculpture,  and  surrounded 
internally  by  a  broad  stone  bench,  is  called  '  the  durbar,'  but  I 
should  rather  guess  had  been  a  school.  Many  have  deep  and 
well-carved  cisterns  attached  to  them,  which,  even  in  this  dry 
season,  were  well  supplied  with  water.  The  largest  and  most 
remarkable  of  all  is  a  Buddhist  temple,  of  great  beauty  and  majesty, 
and  which,  e\  en  in  its  present  state,  would  make  a  very  stately 
and  convenient  place  of  Christian  worship.  It  is  entered  through 
a  fine  and  lofty  portico,  having  on  its  front,  but  a  little  to  the  left 
hand,  a  high  detached  octagonal  pillar,  surmounted  by  three  lions 
seated  back  to  back.  On  the  east  side  of  the  portico  is  a  colossal 
statue  of  Buddh,  with  his  hands  raised  in  the  attitude  of  benedic- 
tion, and  the  screen  which  separates  the  vestibule  from  the  temple 
is  cov  ered,  immediately  above  the  dado,  with  a  row  of  male  and 
female  figures,  nearly  naked,  but  not  indecent,  and  car\'ed  with 
considerable  spirit,  which  apparently  represent  dancers.  In  the 
centre  is  a  large  door,  and  above  it  three  windows,  contained  in 
a  semicircular  arch,  so  like  those  which  are  seen  over  the  entrance 
of  Italian  churches,  that  I  fully  supposed  them  to  be  an  addition 
to  the  original  plan  by  the  Portuguese,  who  are  said,  I  know  not 
on  what  ground,  to  have  used  this  cave  as  a  church,  till  I  found 
a  similar  and  still  more  striking  window  of  the  same  kind  in  the 
great  cave  of  Karle.  Within,  the  apartment  is,  I  should  conceive, 
fifty  feet  long  by  twenty,  an  oblong  square,  terminated  by  a  semi- 
circle, and  surrounded  on  every  side  but  that  of  the  entrance  with 
a  colonnade  of  octagonal  pillars.  Of  these  the  twelve  on  each 
side  nearest  the  entrance  are  ornamented  with  carved  bases  and 
capitals,  in  the  style  usual  in  Indian  temples  ;  the  rest  are  un- 
finished. 

"  In  the  centre  of  the  semicircle,  and  with  a  free  walk  all  lound 
it,  is  a  mass  of  rock  left  solid,  but  carved  e.\ternally  like  a  dome. 


266 


BISHOP  HEBER 


and  so  as  to  bear  a  strong  general  likeness  to  our  Saviour's 
sepulchre,  as  it  is  now  chiselled  away,  and  enclosed  in  St.  Helena's 
church  at  Jerusalem.  On  the  top  of  the  dome  is  a  sort  of  spread- 
ing ornament,  like  the  capital  of  a  column.  It  is  apparently 
intended  to  support  something ;  and  I  was  afterwards  told  at 
Karle,  where  such  an  ornament,  but  of  greater  size,  is  also  found, 
that  a  large  gilt  umbrella  used  to  spring  from  it.  This  solid  dome 
appears  to  be  the  usual  symbol  of  Buddhist  adoration,  and,  with 
its  umbrella  ornament,  may  be  traced  in  the  Shoo-Madoo  of  Pegu, 
and  other  more  remote  structures  of  the  same  faith.  Though  it 
is  different  in  its  form  and  style  of  ornament  from  the  lingam,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  it  has  been  originally  intended  to  represent 
the  same  popular  object  of  that  almost  universal  idolatry,  which 
Scripture,  with  good  reason,  describes  as  '  uncleanness  and 
abomination.' 

"  The  ceiling  of  this  cave  is  arched  semicircularly,  and  orna- 
mented, in  a  very  singular  manner,  with  slender  ribs  of  teak-wood 
of  the  same  cune  with  the  roof,  and  disposed  as  if  they  were 
supporting  it,  which,  however,  it  does  not  require,  nor  are  they 
strong  enough  to  answer  the  purpose.  Their  use  may  have  been 
to  hang  lamps  or  flowers  from  in  solemn  rejoicings.  My  com- 
panions in  this  visit,  who  showed  themselves  a  little  jealous  of  the 
antiquity  of  these  remains,  and  of  my  inclination  to  detract  from 
it,  would  have  had  me  suppose  that  these  two  were  additions  by 
the  Portuguese.  But  there  are  similar  ribs  at  Karle,  where  the 
Portuguese  never  were.  They  cannot  be  very  old,  and  though 
they  certainly  may  have  been  added  or  renewed  since  the  building 
was  first  constructed,  they  must,  at  all  events,  refer  to  a  time  when 
it  and  the  forms  of  its  worship  were  held  in  honour.  The  question 
will  remain,  how  late  or  how  early  the  Buddhists  ceased  to  be  rich 
and  powerful  in  Western  India  ?  or  when,  if  ever,  the  followers  of 
the  Brahmanical  creed  were  likely  to  pay  honour  to  Buddhist 
symbols  of  the  Deity  ? 

"  The  latter  question  is  at  variance  with  all  usual  opinions  as 
to  the  difference  between  these  sects,  and  the  animosity  which  has 
ever  prevailed  betwixt  them.  But  I  have  been  very  forcibly 
struck  by  the  apparent  identity  of  the  Buddhist  clialtah  and  the 
Brahmanical  lingam.  The  very  name  of  the  great  temple  of  A\-a, 
'  Shoo-Madoo,'  '  Golden  IVIaha-Deo,'  seems  to  imply  a  greater 
approximation  than  is  generally  supposed  ;  and,  above  all,  a  few 
weeks  afterwards  I  found  the  cave  of  Karle  in  the  keeping  of 
Brahmans,  and  honoured  by  them  as  a  temple  of  Maha-Deo.  All 
this  seems  to  prove  that  we  know  very  little  indeed  of  the  religious 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


267 


history  of  India,  that  little  or  no  credit  can  be  given  to  the  accounts 
contained  in  the  Brahmanical  writings,  and  that  these  accounts, 
even  if  true,  may  refer  to  comparatively  a  small  part  of  India  ; 
while,  whatever  is  the  date  of  these  illustrious  caverns  (and  Kan- 
heri  I  really  should  guess  to  be  older  than  Elephanta),  no  stress 
can  be  laid  either  way  on  their  identity  or  discrepancy  with  the 
modern  superstition  of  the  country,  or  the  alleged  neglect  of  the 
natives.  On  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  portico  of  the  great  cave  at 
Kanheri  is  an  inscription  in  a  character  different  both  from  the 
Nagri  and  the  popular  running-hand,  which,  more  than  Nagri, 
prevails  with  the  Marathas. 

"  There  are  many  similar  instances  in  different  parts  of  India 
of  inscriptions  in  characters  now  unintelligible  ;  nor  will  any  one 
who  knows  how  exceedingly  incurious  the  Brahmans  are  on  all 
such  subjects,  wonder  that  they  are  not  able  to  assist  Europeans 
in  deciphering  them.  But  it  would  be  a  very  useful  and  by  no 
means  a  difficult  task  to  collect  copies  of  some  of  the  most  remark- 
able, and  compare  them  with  each  other,  since  we  should  thus, 
at  least,  ascertain  whether  one  or  many  characters  prevailed  in 
India  before  the  use  of  the  present  alphabets  ;  and,  in  the  first 
case,  from  the  knowledge  of  the  date  of  some  few  buildings  where 
this  character  is  found,  be  able  to  guess  that  of  others  whose 
history  is  unknown.  The  inscription  of  Pertauljghur,  that  on  the 
column  of  Firoze  Shah  at  Delhi,  and  on  the  similar  column  at 
Koottab-sahib,  might  thus  be  collated,  with  probably  many  others 
as  yet  unknown  to  me  ;  and  the  result  might  tell  something  more 
than  we  yet  know  respecting  the  antiquities  of  this  great  and 
interesting  country. 

"In  Mr.  Elphinstonc's  party  on  this  occasion  was  a  French 
officer,  the  Chevalier  Rienzi  (a  descendant  of  the  celebrated  tribune, 
the  friend  of  Petrarch),  who  was  just  arrived  from  a  journey  through 
a  considerable  part  of  Egypt  and  Abyssinia.  I  was  anxious  to 
know  what  degree  of  likeness  and  what  comparative  merit  he 
discovered  between  these  caves  and  those  of  Thebes,  etc.  He 
said  that  the  likeness  between  Kanheri  and  the  Egyptian  caves 
was  very  slight  and  general,  and  in  point  of  beauty  very  greatly 
preferred  these  last." 

After  another  month  of  hard  work  in  the  Government 
House  at  Parell,  to  which  he  had  removed  from  the  Governor's 
sea  quarters  at  Malabar  Point  on  the  outburst  of  the  monsoon, 
the  Bishop  with  Archdeacon  Barnes  set  off  for  Poona  and  the 
Dekkan  by  Panwell,  the  port  for  the  mainland  from  Bombay 


268 


BISHOP  HEBER 


before  the  railway  was  made  by  Thana  to  Kalyan  junction. 
Having  passed  along  the  road,  well  raised  above  the  low  level 
of  the  Konkan,  amid  the  misery  of  sleeplessness  in  jolting 
palanquins  beaten  on  by  the  torrents  of  rain,  they  walked 
four  and  a  half  miles  up  the  steep  Bhor  Ghat  to  Khandala, 
the  views  reminding  them  of  some  parts  of  the  Vale  of  Corwen. 
The  third  and  finest  series  of  cave  temples,  those  of  Karle, 
extending  in  time  from  the  age  of  Asoka,  250  B.C.,  to  the 
Christian  era,  were  thus  inspected : — 

"  2%th  June  1825. 

"  In  the  afternoon  I  rode  on  horseback,  accompanied  by  Dr. 
Barnes,  the  stage  between  Khandala  and  Karle,  diverging  from  die 
road  about  a  mile  to  visit  the  celebrated  cavern  which  takes  its 
name  from  this  last  place,  and  which  is  hewn  on  the  face  of  a 
precipice  about  two-thirds  up  the  side  of  a  steep  hill,  rising,  with 
a  \  ery  scarped  and  regular  talus,  to  the  height  of  probably  eight 
hundred  feet  above  the  plain.  The  excavations  consist,  besides 
the  principal  temple,  of  many  smaller  apartments  and  galleries,  in 
two  stories,  some  of  them  ornamented  with  great  beauty,  and 
evidently  intended,  like  those  at  Kanhdri,  for  the  lodging  of  monks 
or  hermits.  The  temple  itself  is  on  the  same  general  plan  as  that 
of  Kanheri,  but  half  as  large  again,  and  far  finer  and  richer.  .  .  . 

"  The  approach  to  the  temple  is,  like  that  at  Kanheri,  under  a 
noble  arch,  filled  up  with  a  sort  of  portico  screen,  in  two  stories  of 
three  intercolumniations  below,  and  five  above.  In  the  front,  but 
a  little  to  the  left,  is  the  same  kind  of  pillar  as  is  seen  at  Kanheri, 
though  of  larger  dimensions,  surmounted  by  three  lions  back  to 
back.  Within  the  portico,  to  the  right  and  left,  are  three  colossal 
figures,  in  alto  7-elicvo,  of  elephants,  their  faces  looking  to\\-ards 
the  person  who  arrives  in  the  portico,  and  their  heads,  tusks,  and 
trunks  veiy  boldly  projecting  from  the  wall.  On  each  of  them  is 
a  mahout,  veiy  well  carved,  and  a  howdah  with  two  persons  seated 
in  it.  The  internal  screen,  on  each  side  of  the  door,  is  covered, 
as  at  Kanheri,  with  al/o  relievos,  veiy  bold,  and  some\\hat  larger 
than  life,  of  naked  male  and  female  figures.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
image  either  of  Buddh  or  any  other  mythological  personage  about 
this  cavern,  nor  any  visible  object  of  de\  otion  except  the  mystic 
chattah,  or  umbrella,  already  mentioned  at  Kanheri. 

"  The  cave,  in  its  general  arrangement,  closely  answers  to 
Kanheri,  but  both  in  dimensions  and  execution  it  is  much  nobler 
and  more  elaborate.    The  capitals  of  the  columns  (all  of  them  at 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


269 


least  which  are  not  hidden  by  the  chattah  at  the  east  end)  are 
very  singular  and  beautiful.  Each  consists  of  a  large  cap,  like  a 
bell,  finely  carved,  and  surmounted  by  two  elephants  with  their 
trunks  entwined,  and  each  carrying  two  male  and  one  female 
figure.  The  timber  ribs  which  decorate  the  roof,  whatever  their 
use  may  have  been,  are  very  perfect,  and  ha\  e  a  good  effect  in 
the  perspective  of  the  interior,  which  is  all  e.xtremely  clean  and  in 
good  repair,  and  would  be,  in  fact,  a  very  noble  temple  for  any 
rehgion.  .  .  . 

"  I  had  another  comfortless  night's  journey  in  my  palanquin, 
suffering  a  good  deal  from  sleeplessness,  and  alternate  fits  of 
shivering  and  heat.  We  reached  Mr.  Chaplin's  bungalow  in 
Poona  cantonment  about  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  29th, 
and  I  hoped  that  some  hours'  repose  in  an  excellent  bed  would  set 
me  up  again.  I  was  mistaken,  however,  for  m  the  following  night  I 
was  attacked  by  dysentery,  of  which  all  these  had,  I  suppose,  been 
the  previous  symptoms,  and  which  kept  me  pretty  closely  con- 
fined during  great  part  of  my  stay  in  Poona.  I  was  happy  in 
being  sufficiently  reco\  ered  on  Saturday  to  administer  Confirma- 
tion to  about  forty  persons,  chiefly  officers  and  privates  of  His 
Majesty's  20th  Regiment,  and  on  Sunday  to  consecrate  the  church 
and  preach  a  sermon  to  a  numerous  congregation.  Mr.  Chaplin 
also  drove  me  one  day  round  the  cantonment,  and  on  Monday  I 
went  on  horseback  to  see  the  city  and  the  Peishwa's  palace. 

"...  The  church  is  spacious  and  convenient,  but  in  bad 
architectural  taste,  and  made  still  uglier,  externally,  by  being 
covered  with  dingy  blue  wash  picked  out  with  white.  Mr.  Robin- 
son, the  chaplain,  appears  to  draw  very  numerous  and  attentive 
congregations  both  in  the  mornings  and  evenings  ;  the  latter 
particularly,  which  is  a  voluntary  attendance,  showed  as  many 
soldiers  nearly  as  the  morning's  parade,  and  there  appeared  good 
reason  to  think  not  only  that  the  talents  and  zeal  of  their  able  and 
amiable  minister  produced  the  effect  to  be  anticipated,  but  that 
he  was  well  supported  by  the  example  and  influence  of  Sir  Charles 
Colville  and  others  in  authority.  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  prevail 
on  Sir  Charles  Coh  ille  to  rescind  his  order  restricting  the  soldiers 
from  carrying  the  books  of  the  station  library  with  them  to  their 
quarters,  and  tmst  that  an  essential  good  may  thus  be  produced 
both  to  this  and  all  the  other  cantonments  of  the  Bombay  army. 
And,  on  the  whole,  though  the  state  of  my  health  prevented  my 
either  seeing  or  doing  so  much  at  Poona  as  I  had  hoped  to  do, 
and,  under  other  circumstances,  might  have  done,  I  trust  that  the 
journey  was  not  altogether  useless  to  myself  and  others. 


270 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  During  the  hours  that  illness  confined  me  to  my  room  I  had 
the  advantage  of  reading  the  reports  on  the  state  of  the  Dekkan 
by  Mr.  Elphinstone  and  Mr.  Chaplin,  with  a  considerable  volume 
of  MS.  documents,  and  was  thus  enabled,  better  than  I  otherwise 
should  have  been,  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  this  new  and  important 
conquest." 

Mountstuart  Elphinstone  had  been  Governor  of  Bombay 
for  six  years  at  the  time  of  Heber's  visit,  and  he  was  succeeded 
by  Sir  John  Malcolm  two  years  afterwards.  The  intercourse 
of  the  Governor  and  the  Bishop  had  only  one  drawback  at  the 
first — the  shyness  of  the  accomplished  host.  It  is  interesting 
to  contrast  the  impressions  which  each  made  on  the  other, 
as  recorded  in  his  Journal : — 

"  yd  May  1825. 

"  The  Bishop  is  here  in  very  general  admiration,  simple,  kind, 
lively,  liberal,  learned,  and  ingenious.  It  is  seldom  one  sees  a 
character  so  perfectly  amiable.  My  shyness  and  awkwardness 
prevent  my  getting  so  well  acquainted  with  him  as  I  could  wish." 

"  25M  May. 

"  After  Council  I  went  to  the  Kanheri  caves  to  meet  the  Bishop 
and  party.  We  saw  the  caves,  and  had  some  Cashmere  and  Persian 
songs." 

"%th  August. 

"  The  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Heber  leave  us  the  day  after  to-morrow. 
The  period  of  their  stay  has  been  extremely  pleasant.  Both  are 
very  agreeable." 

"  15M  August. 

"  I  went  into  town  to-day  to  see  the  Bishop  off.  I  shall  miss 
him  and  Mrs.  Heber  very  much,  not  to  mention  poor  little  Emmy." 

"  We  took  our  final  leave  of  Bombay  on  the  i  5th  of  August, 
and  embarked  in  the  Discovery,  commanded  by  Captain  Brucks, 
of  the  Company's  marine.  Mr.  Elphinstone  asked  all  the  principal 
civil  and  military  servants  of  the  Company  to  breakfast  on  the 
occasion,  in  the  Government  House  in  the  Fort  ;  many  of  them 
accompanied  us  to  the  water's  edge,  and  others  went  on  board 
with  us,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Meriton,  the  superintendent  of 
marine,  known  by  the  desperate  valour  which  he  displayed  on 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


271 


several  occasions  while  commanding  different  East  India  ships. 
Mr.  Robinson  of  Poona  and  Dr.  Smith  accompanied  me  as 
chaplain  and  medical  attendant. 

"Although  we  had  long  looked  forward  with  eagerness  to  the 
moment  when  I  should  be  at  liberty  to  resume  a  journey  which 
was  to  take  us  to  Calcutta,  and  to  unite  us  all  once  more  together, 
we  could  not  leave  Bombay  without  regret.  There  were  some 
persons  whom  we  were  sincerely  pained  to  part  with  there.  We 
had  met  with  much  and  marked  kindness  and  hospitality,  we  had 
enjoyed  the  society  of  several  men  of  distinguished  talent,  and  all 
my  views  for  the  regulation  and  advantage  of  the  clergy,  and  for 
the  gradual  advancement  of  Christianity,  had  met  with  a  support 
beyond  my  hopes,  and  unequalled  in  any  other  part  of  India. 

"  1  had  found  old  acquaintances  in  Sir  Edward  West  and  Sir 
Charles  Chambers,  and  an  old  and  valuable  friend  (as  well  as  a 
sincerely  attached  and  cordial  one)  in  Archdeacon  Barnes.  Above 
all,  however,  I  had  enjoyed,  in  the  unremitting  kindness,  the 
splendid  hospitality,  and  agreeable  conversation  of  Mr.  Elphin- 
stone,  the  greatest  pleasure  of  the  kind  which  I  have  ever  enjoyed 
either  in  India  or  Europe. 

"  Mr.  Elphinstone  is,  in  every  respect,  an  extraordinary  man, 
possessing  great  activity  of  body  and  mind,  remarkable  talent  for, 
and  application  to  public  business,  a  love  of  literature,  and  a  degree 
of  almost  universal  information,  such  as  I  have  met  with  in  no 
other  person  similarly  situated,  and  manners  and  conversation  of 
the  most  amiable  and  interesting  character.  While  he  has  seen 
more  of  India  and  the  adjoining  countries  than  any  man  now- 
living,  and  has  been  engaged  in  active  political,  and  sometimes 
military,  duties  since  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  has  found  time  not 
only  to  cultivate  the  languages  of  Hindostan  and  Persia,  but  to 
preserve  and  extend  his  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  and  Latin 
classics,  with  the  French  and  Italian,  with  all  the  elder  and  more 
distinguished  English  writers,  and  with  the  current  and  popular 
literature  of  the  day,  both  in  poetry,  history,  politics,  and  political 
economy.  With  these  remarkable  accomplishments,  and  notwith- 
standing a  temperance  amounting  to  rigid  abstinence,  he  is  fond 
of  society,  and  it  is  a  common  subject  of  surprise  with  his  friends, 
at  what  hours  of  the  day  or  night  he  finds  time  for  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge.  His  policy,  so  far  as  India  is  concerned,  appeared 
to  me  peculiarly  wise  and  liberal,  and  he  is  evidently  attached 
to,  and  thinks  well  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants.  His  public 
measures,  in  their  general  tendency,  evince  a  steady  wish  to 
improve  their  present  condition.    No  government  in  India  pays 


272 


BISHOP  HEBER 


so  much  attention  to  schools  and  pubhc  institutions  for  education. 
In  none  are  the  taxes  lighter,  and  in  the  administration  of  justice 
to  the  natives  in  their  own  languages,  in  the  establishment  of 
punchayets,  in  the  degree  in  which  he  employs  the  natives  in 
official  situations,  and  the  countenance  and  familiarity  which  he 
extends  to  all  the  natives  of  rank  who  approach  him,  he  seems  to 
have  reduced  to  practice  almost  all  the  reforms  which  had  struck 
me  as  most  required  in  the  system  of  government  pursued  in  those 
provinces  of  our  Eastern  Empire  which  I  had  previously  visited. 
His  popularity  (though  to  such  a  feeling  there  may  be  individual 
exceptions)  appears  little  less  remarkable  than  his  talents  and 
acquirements,  and  I  was  struck  by  the  remark  I  once  heard,  that 
'  all  other  public  men  had  their  enemies  and  their  friends,  their 
admirers  and  their  aspersers,  but  that  of  Mr.  Elphinstone  ever)'- 
body  spoke  highly.'  Of  his  munificence,  for  his  liberality  amounts 
to  this,  I  had  heard  much,  and  knew  some  instances  myself. 

"  With  regard  to  the  free  press,  I  was  curious  to  know  the 
motives  or  apprehensions  which  induced  Mr.  Elphinstone  to  be 
so  decidedly  opposed  to  it  in  this  country.  In  discussing  the 
topic  he  was  always  open  and  candid,  acknowledged  that  the 
dangers  ascribed  to  a  free  press  in  India  had  been  e.vaggerated, 
but  spoke  of  the  exceeding  inconvenience,  and  even  danger,  which 
arose  from  the  disunion  and  dissension  which  political  discussion 
produced  among  the  European  officers  at  the  different  stations, 
the  embarrassment  occasioned  to  Government  by  the  exposure 
and  canvass  of  all  their  measures  by  the  Lentuli  and  Gracchi  of 
a  newspaper,  and  his  preference  of  decided  and  vigorous  to  half 
measures,  where  any  restrictive  measures  at  all  were  necessary. 
I  confess  that  his  opinion  and  experience  are  the  strongest  pre- 
sumptions which  I  have  yet  met  with  in  favour  of  the  censorship. 

"  A  charge  has  been  brought  against  Mr.  Elphinstone  by  the 
indiscreet  zeal  of  an  amiable  but  not  well-judgmg  man,  the  'field 
officer  of  cavalry'  who  published  his  Indian  travels,  that  'he  is 
devoid  of  religion,  and  blinded  to  all  spiritual  truth.'  I  can  only 
say  that  I  saw  no  reason  to  think  so.  On  the  contrary,  after 
this  character  which  I  had  read  of  him,  I  was  most  agreeably 
surprised  to  find  that  his  conduct  and  conversation,  so  far  as  I 
could  learn,  had  been  always  moral  and  decorous,  that  he  was 
regular  in  his  attendance  on  public  worship,  and  not  only  well 
informed  on  religious  topics,  but  well  pleased  and  forward  to  dis- 
cuss them  ;  that  his  views  appeared  to  me,  on  all  essential  sub- 
jects, doctrinally  correct,  and  his  feelings  serious  and  reverential; 
and  that  he  was  not  only  inclined  to  do,  but  actually  did  more  for 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


273 


the  encouragement  of  Christianity,  and  the  suppression  or  diminu- 
tion of  suttees,  than  any  other  Indian  Governor  has  ventured  on. 
That  he  may  have  differed  in  some  respects  from  the  pecuhar 
views  of  the  author  in  question,  I  can  easily  beHeve,  though  he 
could  hardly  know  himself  in  what  this  difference  consisted,  since 
I  am  assured  that  he  had  taken  his  opinion  at  second  hand,  and 
not  from  anything  which  Mr.  Elphinstone  had  either  said  or  done. 
But  I  have  been  unable  to  refrain  from  giving  this  slight  and 
imperfect  account  of  the  character  of  Mr.  Elphinstone  as  it 
appeared  to  me,  since  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  it  thought  that 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  amiable  men  I  ever  met  with  were 
either  a  profligate  or  an  unbeliever." 

The  publication  of  Bishop  Heber's  Journal  with  this  passage 
led  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  to  express  to  a  friend  some  mis- 
giving lest  it  should  appear  that  he  had,  in  his  conversation 
with  his  guest,  expressed  more  than  he  felt.  "  It  is  certain," 
writes  ^  his  biographer,  "  that  his  religious  opinions  were  not 
of  the  orthodox  character  the  Bishop  supposed,  but  such  were 
his  natural  piety  and  his  leanings  to  Christianity  that  a  casual 
acquaintance  might  be  easily  misled  as  to  his  views.  .  .  .  One 
who  had  the  best  means  of  judging  of  his  opinions  in  later  life 
considered  that  they  were  those  of  a  devout  Unitarian." 

From  28th  April,  when  the  Bishop  held  his  visitation  of 
the  clergy  in  the  old  church  —  since  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
Thomas — to  his  sermon  before  the  Governor  on  Whit  Sunday 
from  Acts  ii.  38,  39,  when  he  urged  the  highest  authorities  to 
aid,  in  their  private  capacity,  in  the  conversion  of  India,  down 
to  the  day  before  his  departure  for  Ceylon,  he  was  incessantly 
occupied  in  inspecting  and  encouraging  every  form  of  church 
and  charitable  effort  in  the  Presidency.  Five  churches  were 
consecrated,  and  the  new  school  of  the  Bombay  Education 
Society  was  dedicated  by  prayer.  In  this  latter  work  Heber 
anticipated  the  services  of  philanthropists  like  Sir  Henry  and 
Lady  Lawrence  in  the  military  asylums  which  bear  their  name, 
of  Alexander  Duff  in  care  for  the  Eurasians,  and  of  his  own 
successor,  Bishop  Cotton,  in  the  hill  schools.  At  a  public 
breakfast,  after  the  foundation  stone  had  been  well  laid,  Heber 
thus  addressed  the  Governor  : — 

1  Lifeof  the  Honourable  Mountstuart  Elphinstonchy  ?;\x'X.  E.  Colebrooke, 
Bart.,  M. P. ,  London  (John  Murray),  1884,  vol.  ii.  p.  172. 

T 


274 


BISHOP  HERER 


"  It  is  a  grateful  sight  to  see  the  high,  the  talented,  and  the 
valorous  unite  to  grace  with  their  presence  a  work,  the  object  of 
which  is  to  promote  the  education  of  the  poor.  It  is  impossible 
for  us  to  look  on  the  group  of  children  now  before  us,  to  hear 
their  seraphic  voices,  and  to  consider  who  they  are  and  what 
may  be  the  consequences  of  their  education,  without  the  deepest 
interest.  They  are  the  children  of  those  who  have  fought  our 
battles,  and  have  shed  their  blood,  side  by  side,  with  our  fellow- 
countrymen;  and  it  is  to  them  and  their  children  that,  humanly 
speaking,  we  must  look  for  the  improvement  of  the  people  over 
whom  we  rule,  and  their  conversion  from  the  errors  of  their  super- 
stition to  the  pure  tenets  of  our  faith.  So  that  even  if  the  sway 
of  England,  like  other  dynasties,  should  pass  away  (which  God 
grant  may  be  far  distant!),  we  shall  be  chiefly  remembered  by 
the  blessings  which  we  have  left  behind." 

When  in  Salsette,  moved  by  the  ignorance  and  degradation 
of  the  casteless  tribe  there,  Heber  at  once  proposed  "the 
establishment  of  a  school  and  a  missionary  among  them,"  as 
John  Wilson  not  long  after  did  for  the  other  jungle  peoples  of 
Western  India. 

The  Company's  cruiser  Discovery  gave  its  passengers  a 
pleasant  time,  despite  the  monsoon  swell  of  the  Indian  Ocean, 
as  for  ten  days  it  coasted  along  the  beautiful  shores  and  back- 
waters of  Malabar,  dotted  with  Christian  churches  from  the 
times  of  Pantrenus  and  Cosmas  Indicopleustes.  Mrs.  Heber, 
whose  pen  was  almost  as  ready  as  her  husband's,  writes  the 
Jour7ial  of  their  tour  in  Ceylon,  which  the  Bishop  himself 
sketches  in  letters  to  his  venerable  mother  and  to  Mr.  Mayor, 
vicar  of  Shawbury,  in  Shropshire,  who  had  given  a  son  to  the 
Baddegama  Mission  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in 
Ceylon.  From  Bombay  to  the  close  of  his  episcopate  Heber 
enjoyed  the  services  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Robinson,  A.M., 
chaplain  of  Poona,  and  afterwards  Archdeacon  of  Madras,  as 
his  domestic  chaplain.  Mr.  Robinson  was  a  scholar  who  had 
prepared  a  Persian  translation  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  it  was 
desirable  that  he  should  be  in  Calcutta  to  pass  his  work 
through  the  press  of  Bishop's  College.  To  this  we  owe  the 
tender  record  of  "this  beloved  apostle  of  the  East," which  was 
published  first  in  Madras  in  1829,  and  then  in  London — The 
Last  Days  of  Bishop  Heber. 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


275 


Sir  Edward  Barnes  was  the  Governor  of  Ceylon,  which  had 
become  a  Crown  Colony  in  1798,  when  it  was  separated  from 
the  adjoining  Presidency  of  Madras,  of  which,  in  almost  every 
other  respect,  it  forms  a  part.  The  cruel  king  of  Kandy,  whom 
we  had  set  up  after  driving  out  the  Dutch  in  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  was  still  a  State  prisoner  in  Vellore,  and  his  much-injured 
chiefs  had  gladly  vested  the  sovereignty  in  the  British  Crown. 
It  was  not  till  181 8  that  the  Church  Missionary  Society  began 
its  beneficent  work  among  the  Singhalese  Buddhists  ^  at  the 
lovely  hill  capital  of  Kandy,  and  a  little  later  at  Baddegama 
and  Cotta,  in  the  south,  while  a  separate  set  of  workers 
evangelised  the  Tamil-speaking  Hindoos  who  had  crossed  the 
pilgrim  bridge  of  Rameswaram  to  Jaffna.  Colombo,  the 
British  capital,  which  a  railway  of  seventy -five  miles  now 
connects  with  the  Kandy  sanitarium,  and  Kurunegala  were 
occupied  long  after.  But,  led' by  the  intrepid  Coke,- who,  ten 
years  before  Heber's  visit,  had  died  when  off  Ceylon,  the 
Wesleyan  missionaries  had  settled  there.  Not  five  years  had 
passed  since  the  first  and  greatest  of  American  medical 
missionaries,  John  Scudder,  M.D.,  had  landed  from  Boston 
to  begin  at  Jaffna  the  Tamil  Mission  which  he  and  his 
children  to  the  fourth  generation  have  since  spread  over  Arcot 
and  other  districts  of  South  India.  As  yet,  then,  it  was  the 
day  of  small  things  in  the  island  of  which  Heber  had  sung 
in  his  immortal  hymn,  and  where  he  failed  to  find  even  "the 
spicy  breezes"  which  the  poet's  fancy  has  ever  since  led  visitors 
to  expect. 

Mrs.  Heber  thus  describes  the  Bishop's  reception  at  Galle, 
which  continued  the  principal  port  of  the  island  till  recently, 
when  the  harbour  that  gives  Colombo  its  name  was  improved : 

"  25//;  August  1825. 

"  Mr.  Glennie,  the  senior  colonial  chaplain  ;  Mr.  Layard,  the 
judge  of  Galle  ;  Mr.  Mayor,  one  of  the  Church  missionaries,  and 
the  Master  Attendant  of  Galle,  came  on  board  to  meet  us,  and 
about  three  o'clock  the  vessel  was  got  safe  into  harbour.  The 

'  William  Carey,  of  course,  had  been  the  first  to  work  for  the  Buddhists 
of  Ceylon,  having  made  progress  in  the  study  of  their  language  in  1798,  and 
sent  Chater  to  begin  a  mission  among  them  at  Colombo  in  1812.  The  London 
Missionary  Society  had  sent  three  Germans  to  Ceylon  in  1804. 

-  Dr.  Coke  aijplied  to  be  made  first  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  See  The  Cor- 
respondence of  William  Wilherforce,  vol.  ii.  p.  256  (1840). 


276 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Fort  fired  a  salute,  which  the  Discovery  returned,  and  we  were 
met  on  the  pier  by  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  place,  the 
regiments  stationed  there,  and  a  band  of  spearmen  and  lascarines. 
The  pier  was  covered  with  white  cloth,  and  we  passed  between 
two  files  of  soldiers  to  the  place  where  palanquins,  etc.,  were 
waiting  ;  in  which,  preceded  by  native  music,  a  constant  attendant 
on  all  processions,  we  went  two  miles  to  the  cutcherry,  where  we 
were  invited,  and  most  kindly  and  hospitably  entertained,  by  Mr. 
Sansoni,  the  collector  of  the  district. 

"  The  Singhalese  on  the  coast  differ  very  much  from  any 
Indians  I  have  yet  seen,  and  their  language  also  is  different ; 
they  wear  no  turban  or  other  kind  of  covering,  on  the  head,  but 
turn  up  their  long  black  hair  with  large  tortoiseshell  combs  ;  the 
coolies  and  labouring  classes  have  merely  the  waist-cloth,  as  in 
Bengal  ;  but  the  '  moodeliers,'  or  native  magistrates,  headmen, 
as  they  are  generally  called,  wear  a  strange  mixture  of  the  Portu- 
guese and  native  dress,  but  handsome,  from  the  gold  with  which  it 
is  covered.  The  moodelier  of  Galle,  and  all  his  family,  are 
Christians  ;  he  is  a  most  respectable  man,  in  face  and  figure 
resembling  Louis  XVIII.,  to  whom  his  sons  also  bear  a  strong 
likeness ;  the  old  man  wears  a  handsome  gold  medal,  given  him 
for  meritorious  conduct." 

"261/1  August. 

"  The  heat  is  said  to  be  never  very  oppressive  at  Galle,  being 
constantly  tempered  by  sea-breezes  and  by  frequent  rain  ;  the 
total  absence  of  punkahs  indeed  proves  the  climate  to  be  moderate. 
The  fort  was  built  by  the  Dutch,  and  is  a  good  deal  out  of  repair. 
We  dined  to-day  at  Mr.  Layard's,  who  has  an  excellent  house 
within  its  walls  ;  we  went  in  our  palanquins,  and  instead  of  the 
lanterns  to  which  we  had  been  accustomed  in  Calcutta  and  Bom- 
bay, were  preceded  by  men  carrying  long  palm-branches  on  fire  ; 
the  appearance  of  these  natural  torches  was  picturesque,  and  their 
smell  not  unpleasant  ;  but  the  sparks  and  flakes  of  fire  which 
they  scattered  about  were  very  disagreeable,  and  frequently  were 
blown  into  my  palanquin,  to  the  great  danger  of  my  muslin  dress  ; 
they  are  never  used  within  the  fort." 

"28/^  August. 

"The  Bishop  confirmed  about  thirty  persons,  of  whom  the 
greater  portion  were  natives  ;  some  of  the  moodelier's  family  were 
among  the  number,  but  the  rest  were  principally  scholars  from 
Mrs.  Gisborne's  school.    He  afterwards  preached.    The  church  was 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


277 


built  by  the  Dutch,  and,  according  to  their  custom,  is  without  a 
communion  table,  and  for  the  most  part  open.  It  is  kept  neatly, 
but  is  a  good  deal  out  of  repair.  The  native  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion was  numerous,  and  paid  great  attention  to  the  ceremony, 
though  many  were  there  out  of  curiosity  alone.  Mr.  Robinson 
preached  in  the  evening." 

"  29//i  August. 

"  This  morning,  at  three  o'clock,  we  were  roused  by  beat  of 
drum  to  prepare  for  our  march  to  Colombo  ;  we  formed  a  long 
cavalcade  of  palanquins  and  gigs,  preceded  by  an  escort  of  spear- 
men and  noisy  inharmonious  music,  and  attended  by  some  of  Mr. 
Sansoni's  lascarines,  who  answer  in  some  respects  to  our  peons  in 
Calcutta  ;  they  wear  rather  a  pretty  uniform  of  white,  red,  and 
black,  and  a  conical  red  cap,  with  an  upright  white  feather  in  it. 
Instead  of  the  chattah  used  with  us,  these  men  carry  large  fans 
made  of  the  talipot  palm,  which  is  peculiar  to  Ceylon,  from  six  to 
nine  feet  in  length,  over  the  heads  of  Europeans  and  rich  natives, 
to  guard  them  from  the  sun.  The  road  was  decorated  the  whole 
way  as  for  a  festival,  with  long  strips  of  palm-branches  hung  upon 
strings  on  either  side  ;  and  wherever  we  stopped  we  found  the 
ground  spread  with  white  cloth,  and  awnings  erected,  beautifully 
decorated  with  flowers  and  fruits,  and  festooned  with  palm- 
branches.  These  remnants  of  the  ancient  custom  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  of  strewing  the  road  with  palm-branches  and  garments, 
are  curious  and  interesting." 

"  loth  August. 

"  We  were  met  by  Sir  Edward  Barnes's  carriage,  drawn  by 
four  beautiful  English  horses,  which  took  us,  with  a  fresh  relay, 
through  the  Fort  at  Colombo,  where  the  usual  salute  was  fired,  to 
St.  Sebastian.  Here  we  found  a  most  comfortable  house,  pro- 
vided and  furnished  by  Government,  on  the  borders  of  a  large 
lake,  but  commanding  a  fine  open  view  of  the  sea.  This  was  the 
residence  of  the  late  Archdeacon  Twistleton,  whose  death  we  have 
heard  much  lamented  ;  it  is  reckoned  one  of  the  healthiest  spots  in 
the  island,  always  enjoying  a  fine  breeze  from  the  sea.  In  the  even- 
ing we  dined  at  the  '  King's  house,'  that  being  the  name  given  to 
the  residence  of  the  Go\ernor  in  this  Colony.  We  were  most 
kindly  received  by  Sir  Edward  and  Lady  Barnes,  and  met  a  small 
and  agreeable  party,  but  I  was  much  tired,  and  glad  to  go  home 
early.  The  house  is  a  bad  one,  in  the  centre  of  the  Fort,  but 
everything  is  conducted  on  a  handsome  and  liberal  scale  by  the 
Governor." 


278 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  3U/  Attgiist. 

"  Our  morning  was,  as  usual  on  a  first  arrival,  taken  up  by 
visits ;  in  the  afternoon  we  drove  in  Sir  E.  Barnes's  sociable 
through  the  far-famed  cinnamon  gardens,  which  cover  upwards  of 
17,000  acres  of  land  on  the  coast,  the  largest  of  which  are  near 
Colombo.  The  plant  thrives  best  in  a  poor  sandy  soil  in  a  damp 
atmosphere  ;  it  grows  wild  in  the  woods  to  the  size  of  a  large 
apple-tree,  but  when  cultivated  is  never  allowed  to  grow  more 
than  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  height,  each  plant  standing  separate. 
The  leaf  is  something  like  that  of  the  laurel  in  shape,  but  of  a 
lighter  colour  ;  when  it  first  shoots  out  it  is  red,  and  changes 
gradually  to  green.  It  is  now  out  of  blossom,  but  I  am  told  that 
the  flower  is  white,  and  appears  when  in  full  blossom  to  cover  the 
garden.  After  hearing  so  much  of  the  spicy  gales  from  this  island, 
I  was  much  disappointed  at  not  being  able  to  discover  any  scent, 
at  least  from  the  plants,  in  passing  through  the  gardens  ;  there  is 
a  very  fragrant-smelling  flower  growing  under  them,  which  at  first 
led  us  into  a  belief  that  we  smelt  the  cinnamon,  but  we  were 
soon  undeceived.  On  pulling  off  a  leaf  or  a  twig  one  perceives 
the  spicy  odour  very  strongly,  but  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that  the 
flower  has  little  or  none.  As  cinnamon  forms  the  only  consider- 
able export  of  Ceylon,  it  is,  of  course,  preserved  with  great  care  ; 
by  the  old  Dutch  law,  the  penalty  for  cutting  a  branch  was  no 
less  than  the  loss  of  a  hand  ;  at  present  a  fine  expiates  the  same 
offence.  The  neighbourhood  of  Colombo  is  particularly  favour- 
able to  its  growth,  being  well  sheltered,  with  a  high  equable 
temperature  ;  and  as  showers  fall  very  frequently,  though  a  whole 
day's  heavy  rain  is  uncommon,  the  ground  is  never  parched. 

"  The  pearl  fishery  was  at  one  time  very  productix  e,  but  some 
years  ago  it  entirely  failed,  and  though  it  has  lately  been  resumed, 
the  success  has  been  small.  Ceylon,  partly  from  its  superabundant 
fertility,  which  will  scarcely  allow  of  the  growth  of  foreign  plants, 
and  partly  from  the  indolence  of  the  natives,  is  a  very  poor  colony  ; 
the  potato  will  not  thrive  at  all,  and  it  is  only  at  Kandy  that  any 
kind  of  European  vegetable  comes  to  perfection.  The  Governor 
has  a  basketful  sent  down  every  morning  from  his  garden  there  ; 
the  bread-fruit  is  the  best  substitute  for  potatoes  I  have  met  with, 
but  even  this  is  extremely  inferior.  A  plant,  something  between 
the  turnip  and  the  cabbage,  called  'nolkol,'  is  good." 

"1st  September. 

"The  Bishop  held  his  Visitation,  which  was  attended  by  all 
the  colonial  chaplains  and  Church  missionaries  in  the  island,  the 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


279 


latter  of  whom  were  assembled  at  Cotta  for  their  annual  meeting, 
with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Mayor,  who  was  detained  at  Baddcgama 
by  a  severe  fever,  caught  on  his  way  down  to  meet  us  at  Galle. 
I  think  there  are  few  sights  more  impressive  than  that  of  a  bishop 
addressing  his  clergy  from  the  altar  ;  and  on  this  occasion  it  was 
rendered  peculiarly  interesting  by  there  being  two  regularly 
ordained  native  priests  among  the  number,  Mr.  de  Sarum  and 
Christian  David,  both  colonial  chaplains  ;  the  former  has  had  an 
English  education,  and  was  entered,  I  believe,  at  Cambridge  ;  he 
married  a  young  woman,  who  came  out  with  him,  and  who  shows 
her  good  taste  and  good  judgment  in  living  on  the  best  terms  with 
his  family,  who  are  very  respectable  people  of  the  first  rank  in  the 
island.    The  clergy  dined  with  us' in  the  evening." 

"  2nd  September. 

"  Mr.  Walbeoffe,  the  manager  of  the  cinnamon  gardens,  good- 
naturedly  sent  some  of  the  cinnamon  peelers  to  our  bungalows, 
that  we  might  see  the  way  in  which  the  spice  is  prepared.  They 
brought  with  them  branches  of  about  three  feet  in  length,  of  which 
they  scraped  off  the  rough  bark  with  knives,  and  then,  with  a 
peculiar-shaped  instrument,  stripped  off  the  inner  rind  in  long 
slips  ;  these  are  tied  up  in  bundles,  and  put  to  dry  in  the  sun,  and 
the  wood  is  sold  for  fuel.  In  the  regular  preparation,  however, 
the  outer  bark  is  not  scraped  off,  but  the  process  of  fermentation 
which  the  strips  undergo  when  tied  up  in  large  quantities  removes 
the  coarse  parts.  The  peelers  are  called  '  chaliers '  ;  they  are  a 
distinct  caste,  whose  origin  is  uncertain,  though  they  are  generally 
supposed  to  be  descended  from  a  tribe  of  weavers  who  settled  in 
Ceylon,  from  the  continent,  about  six  hundred  years  ago  ;  in  the 
interior  they  now  pursue  their  original  occupation,  but  those  in  the 
maritime  provinces  are  exclusively  employed  in  peeling  cinnamon. 
They  earn  a  great  deal  of  money  during  the  season,  but  their 
caste  is  considered  very  low." 

"  yd  September. 

"  The  Bishop  has  been  much  engaged  since  our  arrival  in  pre- 
paring a  plan,  which  he  discussed  to-day  with  Sir  E.  Barnes,  for 
restoring  the  schools,  and  the  system  of  religious  instruction  which 
we  found  established  by  the  Dutch,  and  of  uniting  it  more  closely 
with  the  Church  of  England.  At  a  very  small  annual  expense, 
this  plan  would,  he  thinks,  be  the  means  of  spreading  not  merely 
a  nominal,  but  real  Christianity  through  the  island.    There  is 


28o 


BISHOP  HEBER 


also  another  object  which  he  has,  if  possible,  still  more  at  heart, 
which  is  giving  the  native  '  proponents,'  or  catechists,  such  facilities 
for  education  as  would  gradually  fit  them  for  admittance  into  holy 
orders,  and  make  them  the  groundwork  of  a  parochial  clergy  ;  he 
has  been  much  pleased  by  the  anxiety  which  they  show  for  the 
impro\  ement  of  their  scholars,  but  they  have  not  the  means  of 
acquiring  knowledge  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  teach  others, 
and  are  many  of  them  ill-informed,  though  very  good  men.  Books 
are  scarce  in  Singhalese  and  Taniul,  and  he  is  anxious  to  prevail 
on  some  of  the  colonial  clergy  to  translate  a  few  of  the  more 
popular  works  into  these  languages.  In  these  and  in  various  other 
suggestions  which  he  has  made  to  both  chaplains  and  missionaries, 
he  has,  almost  universally,  met  with  the  readiest  concurrence  ; 
and  he  has  often  expressed  to  me  the  extreme  gratification  which 
he  has  derived  since  we  have  been  here,  from  witnessing  the 
exemplary  conduct  of  the  whole  Church  Establishment,  and  the 
readiness  with  which  they  have  entered  into  his  views. 

"  The  Bishop  preached  this  morning  at  St.  Thomas's ;  the 
church  was  very  full,  and,  as  it  has  no  punkahs,  the  heat  was 
great.  It  is  a  remarkably  ugly,  inconvenient  building  ;  indeed,  it 
was  not  originally  intended  as  a  church  by  the  Dutch,  and  the 
Colony  is  too  poor  to  build  another.  There  is  a  mural  tablet  in  it 
to  Bishop  Middleton,  who  was  here  at  two  different  periods." 

' '  bth  September. 

"  Early  this  morning  the  Bishop  went  to  Cotta,  a  Church 
Missionary  station,  about  six  miles  from  Colombo.  Mr.  Lambrick, 
whom  I  remember  tutor,  some  years  ago,  in  Lord  Combermere's 
family,  is  at  present  sole  missionary  there,  and  performs  the 
important  duties  of  the  station  in  a  most  exemplary  manner  ;  the 
number  of  inhabitants  in  the  district  is  very  great  ;  there  are  eight 
schools  in  the  village,  containing  near  two  hundred  children,  of  whom 
a  few  are  girls,  besides  several  in  the  adjoining  hamlets  ;  and  he  has 
two  services  every  Sunday  in  English  and  Singhalese,  as  well  as 
occasional  weekly  duty  in  the  schools  ;  there  is  no  church.  Mr. 
Lambrick  is  now  engaged  in  a  translation  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  Gospels,  part  of  which  is  printed. 

"  While  the  Bishop  was  at  Cotta,  Mr.  Lambrick  read  him  an 
address  in  the  name  of  all  the  missionaries,  in  which,  besides 
giving  him  an  account  of  their  respective  stations,  they  asked  his 
advice  on  several  important  points,  of  which  the  principal  related 
to  prayer-meetings  at  each  other's  houses,  and  to  the  baptism  of 
native  children.' 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


28: 


The  growing  catholicity  of  Reginald  Heber  is  seen  in  the 
written  answer  which  he  gave  to  the  address.  In  each  of  the 
great  centres  of  India  and  Ceylon  the  representatives  of  all  the 
Reformed  Churches  of  Europe  and  America  have  long  been 
in  the  habit  of  holding  a  missionary  conference  once  a  month, 
at  which  breakfast  is  preceded  by  an  hour  of  prayer,  and 
followed  by  the  reading  of  a  paper  and  discussion.  The 
custom  was  then  new,  the  relations  between  the  Christian 
sects  were  then  more  uncertain,  and  the  missionaries  had  not 
then  always  received  the  professional  training  which  all  those 
of  the  churches  and  regular  societies  have  now  long  enjoyed. 
Addressing  clergymen  of  his  own  Church,  so  loyal  a  theologian 
could  not  but  exalt  their  calling,  but  he  even  humbled  him- 
self in  the  fulness  of  the  spirit  of  "  that  grace  which  fell  on 
St.  Paul "  when  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthians  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  his  first  epistle  : — 

"  Colombo,  \yh  September  1825. 

"  My  Reverend  Brethren  —  Having  been  consulted  by 
you  and  the  other  clergy  of  this  archdeaconry  on  the  propriety 
of  engaging  with  missionaries  of  other  religious  sects  in  solemn 
conference  on  topics  connected  with  your  work  among  the 
heathen,  such  as  are  now  statedly  holden  at  JafTna  and  at  this 
place,  I  have  first  to  express  my  thankfulness  to  God  for  the 
brotherly  and  tolerant  spirit  which,  since  my  arrival  in  the  island, 
I  have  noticed  among  those  who,  with  less  or  greater  differences 
of  opinions,  and  discrepancies  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  abun- 
dantly to  be  deplored,  yet  hold,  as  I  am  persuaded,  the  same 
faith  in  the  Cross,  and  shall  be  found,  as  I  trust,  in  the  last  day, 
on  the  same  Rock  of  Salvation.  Nor  am  I  less  thankful  to  the 
Giver  of  all  good  things  for  the  affectionate  and  orderly  spirit 
which  I  find  in  you,  my  brethren,  and  which  has  led  you,  volun- 
tarily, to  submit  a  question  in  which  your  hearts,  as  I  have  reason 
to  believe,  are  much  engaged,  to  the  counsel  of  your  ordinary. 
May  God  continue  and  increase  this  mutual  confidence  between  us, 
and  conduct  it,  and  all  things  else,  to  His  glory  and  our  salvation  ! 

"The  meeting  in  question  has  been  described  to  me  as  a  con- 
ference of  ministers  and  missionaries,  in  a  certain  district,  held  in 
each  other's  house  in  rotation,  attended  by  the  ministers  or 
missionaries  themselves,  their  wives  and  families,  and  occasionally 
by  devout  laymen  from  their  vicinity.     These  meetings  are 


282 


BISHOP  HEBER 


described  as  beginning  and  ending  with  prayer,  led,  indifferently, 
by  ministers  of  different  sects,  or  by  their  lay  friends,  but  not  by 
the  females,  and  as  broken  by  hymns  in  which  all  present  join. 
The  remainder  of  the  time  is  occupied  by  a  friendly  meal  to- 
gether— in  the  comparison,  by  the  missionaries,  of  the  different 
encouragements  and  obstacles  which  they  meet  wMth  among  the 
heathen,  and  in  discussion  of  the  best  means  by  which  their 
common  work  can  be  forwarded.  It  appears  that  this  practice 
commenced  at  Jaffna,  under  circumstances  which  made  it  very 
desirable  for  the  missionaries  of  the  English  Church  not  only  to 
live  on  friendly  and  courteous  terms  with  the  missionaries  sent 
from  America,  but  to  profit  by  the  experience  and  example  of 
these  missionaries  in  their  manner  of  addressing  the  heathen. 
And  it  appears,  also,  that  these  conferences  have  been  strictly 
private  and  domestic,  and  that  there  has  been  no  interchange  or 
confusion  of  the  public  or  appropriate  functions  of  the  Christian 
ministry  between  yourselves  and  the  friends  who,  unhappily,  differ 
from  you  in  points  of  Church  discipline.  Under  such  circum- 
stances it  is  probable  that,  by  God's  blessing,  many  advantages 
may  have  arisen  to  you  all  from  these  conferences  ;  and,  without 
inquiring  whether  these  ad\antages  might  have  been,  in  the  first 
instance,  attainable,  in  a  manner  less  liable  to  inconvenience  or 
misrepresentation,  I  am  happy  that  I  do  not  think  it  necessary  to 
advise  their  cessation,  now  they  are  established,  and  that  your 
dereliction  of  them  might  greatly  interrupt  the  charitable  terms 
on  which  you  now  live  with  your  neighbours. 

"  There  are,  however,  some  serious  dangers  to  which  such 
meetings  are  liable,  against  which  it  is  my  duty  to  caution  you, 
and  by  avoiding  which  you  may  keep  )-our  intercourse  with  your 
fellow-labourers,  as  now,  always  harmless  and  unblamed.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  risk  of  le\  elling,  in  the  eyes  of  others,  and 
even  in  your  own,  the  peculiar  claims  to  attention  on  the  part  of 
men,  and  the  peculiar  hopes  of  grace  and  blessing  from  the  Most 
High,  which,  as  we  believe,  are  possessed  by  the  holders  of  an 
apostolic  commission  over  those  whose  call  to  the  ministry  is  less 
regular,  though  their  labours  are  no  less  sincere.  God  forbid, 
my  brethren,  that  I  should  teach  you  to  think  on  this  account 
highly  of  yourselves  !  Far  otherwise.  This  sense  of  the  advan- 
tages which  we  enjoy  should  humble  us  to  the  dust,  when  we 
bethink  us  who  we  are,  and  what  we  ought  to  be,  who  have 
received  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  the  dispensation  of  a  long  line  of 
saints  and  martyrs — who  are  called  to  follow  the  steps  of  Ridley, 
Hooper,  Latimer,  Rowlands,  Taylor,  and  Henry  Martyn  ;  and  who 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


283 


are,  by  the  external  dispensation,  at  least,  of  Providence,  the  in- 
heritors of  that  grace  which  fell  on  St.  Paul.  But  humbly,  )  ea 
meanly,  as  we  are  bound  to  think  of  ourselves,  we  must  not 
appear  to  undervalue  our  apostolic  bond  of  union  ;  and  the  more 
so  here  in  India,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  great  link  which  binds  us 
to  the  ancient  Syrian  Church,  and  one  principal  means  whereby 
we  hope,  with  the  blessing  of  our  Master,  to  effect  its  gradual 
reformation.  The  neglect,  or  abandonment,  or  apparent  abandon- 
ment of  this  principle,  is  the  first  danger  which  I  apprehend  to  be 
incidental  to  such  meetings  as  I  have  described.  To  guard  against 
it,  an  additional  care  and  caution  will  be  desirable,  in  your  steady 
adherence,  wherever  this  is  practicable,  to  the  external  ceremonies 
and  canonical  observations  of  our  Church  ;  and,  without  estranging 
yourselves  from  your  dissenting  friends,  by  cultivating  a  yet  closer 
union  with  those  who  are,  properly  speaking,  your  brother  clergy. 
With  this  view  I  would  recommend  not  only  the  measures  which 
I  have  lately  suggested,  of  frequent  meetings  of  the  clergy  of  this 
archdeaconry  for  the  purposes  of  mutual  counsel  and  comfort, 
but  a  readiness  on  your  part,  who  are  missionaries,  to  officiate 
whenever  you  are  invited,  and  can  do  it  without  neglect  of  your 
peculiar  functions,  in  the  churches  of  the  Colony,  and  in  rendering 
assistance  to  the  chaplains.  By  this  occasional  attention  (for,  for 
many  reasons,  I  would  have  it  occasional  only)  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  your  own  countrymen,  several  important  ends  will  be 
obtained.  .  .  . 

"Another  precaution  which  occurs  to  me  as  desirable  against 
the  risk  to  which  I  have  alluded  is,  that  it  be  perfectly  under- 
stood that  the  meetings  are  for  the  discussion  of  such  topics  only 
as  belong  to  your  distinct  functions  as  missionaries  to  the 
heathen.  For  this  reason  I  would  recommend  that  the  meeting 
be  confined  to  missionaries  only,  with  their  families,  and  such 
devout  laymen  (for  I  am  unwilling  to  damp,  or  seem  to  discounten- 
ance, their  laudable  zeal)  who  have  already  joined  themselves  to 
your  number.  The  other  clergy  of  the  archdeaconry  will  find,  I 
conceive,  a  sufficient  bond  of  union  and  source  of  mutual  com- 
fort and  advice  in  the  clerical  meeting.  There  are  other  incon- 
veniences and  improprieties  incidental  to  what  are  usually  called 
prayer-meetings  which  ha\e  led  to  their  rejection  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  Church  of  England,  and,  among  the  rest,  by  some 
excellent  men,  whom  the  conduct  pursued  by  those  with  whom 
their  chief  intimacy  lay  would  have  naturally  inclined  to  favour 
them.  I  mean,  among  others,  the  late  Mr.  Scott  of  Aston  Sand- 
ford,  and  the  late  Mr.  Robinson  of  St.  Mary's,  Leicester.  Such 


284 


BISHOP  HEBER 


is  the  practice  reprobated  by  the  Apostle,  of  a  number  of  persons 
coming  together,  with  each  his  psalm,  his  prayer,  his  exhorta- 
tion ;  the  effect  of  which  is,  not  only  often  confusion,  but  what  is 
worse  than  confusion,  self-conceit  and  rivalrj',  each  labouring  to 
excel  his  brother  in  the  choice  of  his  expressions  and  the  outward 
earnestness  of  his  address — and  the  bad  effects  of  emulation  mix- 
ing with  actions  in  which,  of  all  others,  humility  and  forgetfulness 
of  self  are  necessary.  Such,  too,  is  that  warmth  of  feeling  and 
language,  derived  rather  from  imitation  than  conviction,  which, 
under  the  circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned,  are  apt  to 
degenerate  into  enthusiastic  excitement  or  irreverent  familiarity. 

"  And  though  it  is  only  due  both  to  yourselves,  my  brethren, 
and  to  your  dissenting  fellow-labourers  to  state  that  all  which  I 
have  seen  or  heard  of  you  sets  me  at  ease  on  these  subjects,  so 
far  as  you  are  concerned,  yet  it  will  be  well  for  you  to  take  care, 
lest  by  setting  an  example  of  such  an  institution  in  your  own 
persons,  you  encourage  less  instructed  individuals  among  the  laity 
to  adopt  a  practice  which,  in  their  case,  has  almost  always,  I 
believe,  been  injurious.  It  is  on  this  account,  chiefly,  that,  with 
no  feeling  of  disrespect  or  suspicion  towards  the  excellent  lajmen 
who,  as  I  understand,  have  joined  your  society,  I  would  recom- 
mend, if  my  counsel  has  any  weight  (and  1  offer  it  as  my  counsel 
only),  that,  though  there  is  no  impropriety  in  their  taking  their 
turns  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  and  mingling  in  the  discussions 
which  arise  on  the  subjects  connected  with  your  conference,  they 
would  abstain  from  leading  the  society  in  prayer,  except  when 
the  meeting  is  held  in  one  of  their  own  houses,  and  when,  as 
master  of  the  family,  they  may  consistently  offer  up  what  will  then 
be  their  family  devotiojt. 

"  I  would,  lastly,  recommend  to  you  earnestly  that  both  your 
discussions  and  your  prayers  have,  as  their  leading  object,  the 
success  of  Missions,  and  the  means  whereby  Missions  may,  with 
God's  blessing,  be  rendered  successful  ;  and  that  you  would  deviate 
as  little  as  possible  into  other  fields  of  ecclesiastical  inquirj'." 

The  Bishop's  counsels  as  to  the  employment  of  lay  assist- 
ants and  interpreters,  and  as  to  the  baptism  of  the  children  of 
heathen  parents,  are  necessarily  more  technical,  but  are  full  of 
such  wisdom  and  charity  as  this  : — 

"  The  Church  of  Rome,  though  grievously  corrupted,  is  never- 
theless a  part  of  the  visible  Church  of  Christ ;  we  may  not  there- 
fore repel  the  children  of  such  parents  from  baptism,  if  they  are 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


285 


vouched  for  by  their  sponsors  in  the  words  of  our  service,  which 
it  nicay  be  noticed  are  wisely  so  framed  as  to  contain  nothing  but 
those  points  on  which  all  Christians  are  agreed.  The  direction 
at  the  end  to  teach  our  Church  Catechism  is  a  counsel  from  us  to 
the  sponsors,  no  engagement  entered  into  by  them.  It  follows 
that  we  are  not  to  refuse  baptism  to  the  children  of  Roman 
Catholic  parents,  with  sufficient  Protestant  sponsors  ;  I  even 
doubt  whether  we  are  at  liberty  even  with  sponsors  of  their 
parents'  sect." 

When  Claudius  Buchanan  crossed  from  Rameswaram  by 
Adam's  Bridge  to  Ceylon,  in  1808,  he  found  that  the  interests 
of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  province  of  Jaffna  were 
supported  by  the  one  Hindoo  catechist,  Christian  David,  and 
that  tliere  were  but  two  English  clergymen  in  the  whole  island. 
The  two  had  become  three  chaplains  seventeen  years  after,  and 
Heber  naturally  welcomed  the  missionaries  everywhere,  and 
turned  to  the  old  Presbyterian  and  still  existing  system  of  the 
Dutch  to  see  if  it  could  not  be  utilised  for  the  good  of  the 
nominal  Christian  population  fast  disappearing  from  apostasy 
and  death.i  Hence  the  plan  described  above  in  his  wife's 
Journal,  which  he  worked  out  with  the  Governor.  Had  he 
been  spared  to  return  to  this  portion  of  his  diocese,  and  to 
watch  over  it  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  as  I  )aniel  Wilson  long 
did,  Christianity  might  have  made  much  more  rapid  progress 
among  both  the  Buddhists  and  the  Hindoos  there  than  it 
has  done.  He  thus  wrote  to  Mr.  Barnes,  then  about  to  retire 
from  Bombay  : — 

"  Point  de  Galle,  21th  September  1825. 
"  Dear  Archdeacon —  ...  I  have  passed  a  very  interest- 
ing month  in  Ceylon,  but  never  in  my  life,  to  the  best  of  my 
recollection,  passed  so  laborious  a  one.  I  really  think  that  there 
are  better  hopes  of  an  abundant  and  early  harvest  of  Christianity 
here,  while,  at  the  same  time,  there  are  more  objects  connected 
with  its  dissemination  and  establishment  which  call  for  the 
immediate  and  almost  continued  attention  of  a  bishop  than  are 
to  be  found  in  all  India  besides.  I  hope  I  ha\  e  been  partly  en- 
abled to  set  things  going,  and  design,  in  the  course  of  my  visitation 


I  See  The  Conversion  of  India  (John  Murray),  chap.  iv. ,  and,  for  fuller 
details,  Sir  J.  Emerson  Tennent's  Christianity  in  Ceylon  {1859). 


286 


BISHOP  HEBER 


of  the  south  of  Madras  next  spring,  to  run  over  again  for  a  week 
or  ten  days,  to  Jaffna  at  least,  if  not  to  Colombo,  when  I  may 
both  see  the  effects  of  my  measures,  and  possibly  extend  them. 
My  chief  anxiety  is  to  raise  the  character  of  the  native  proponents, 
and,  by  degrees,  elevate  them  into  an  ordained  and  parochial 
clergy.  This,  with  a  better  system  introduced  into  the  go\  em- 
ment  schools,  will  soon,  I  trust,  make  many  new  Christians,  and 
render  some  professing  Christians  less  unworthy  of  their  name 
than  they  now  are. 

"  The  new  archdeacon,  Mr.  Glennie,  is  a  very  valuable  man, 
and  the  Church  missionaries  in  this  island  are  really  patterns  of 
what  missionaries  ought  to  be — zealous,  discreet,  orderly,  and 
most  acti\'e." 

When  leaving  Colombo  for  Kandy,  Mr.  Robinson  tells  us, 
the  Bishop  called  him  to  join  him  in  his  walk  by  the  side  of 
the  lake,  and  expressed  his  confident  expectation  that  the 
diocese  (the  labour  of  which,  he  felt,  was  fast  exhausting  his 
strength)  would  soon  be  divided  into  smaller  bishoprics.  Little 
did  Heber  think  that  his  own  sudden  death,  so  near  at  hand, 
would  do  more  than  the  pressing  necessities  of  the  case,  to 
bring  about  the  creation  of  the  bishoprics  of  Madras,  and 
Bombay,  and  Ceylon.  Mr.  Robinson's  /our/ia/  describes  the 
visitation  of  the  clergy  at  Colombo,  in  St.  Peter's  Church  in 
the  Fort,  and  the  visits  to  Cotta  and  Kandy : — 

"...  The  Bishop  delivered  his  charge  to  the  clergy,  both 
chaplains  and  missionaries,  twelve  in  number.  We  dined  together 
in  the  evening,  and  the  whole  services  of  the  day  have  been  full 
of  interest  and  delight.  I  have  never  seen  so  many  together,  so 
united  in  heart  and  object,  since  I  left  England.  The  good  Bishop 
told  us  some  most  interesting  missionary  anecdotes  of  his  Hin- 
doostan  journey,  and  the  party  left  us  after  evening  prayers.  It 
is  impossible  to  tell  you  with  what  feelings  of  affection  and  obedi- 
ence he  is  regarded  by  all  ;  Mr.  Lambrick,  the  eldest  of  the 
Church  Missionaries,  and  Mr.  Ward  said  to  me  as  they  went 
away,  '  This  is  the  golden  age  of  the  Church  restored  :  this  is 
indeed  the  spirit  of  a  primitive  bishop.'  " 

"6//!  September  1825. 
"  At  daybreak  I  attended  his  Lordship  to  Cotta,  six  miles  oflf, 
the  principal  Church  Missionary  station,  where  they  are  intending 
to  establish  a  Christian  institution  for  the  island.    The  resident 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


287 


missionary  there  now  is  Mr.  Lambrick,  an  excellent,  active,  vigor- 
ous man  of  advanced  age,  formerly  a  tutor  at  Eton,  and  now  more 
honourably  employed.  It  happens  that  one  missionary  from  each 
of  the  other  stations,  Jaffna,  Baddcgama,  and  Kandy,  are  now  there 
for  their  annual  consultation  on  the  affairs  of  their  mission.  It  is 
a  beautiful  sequestered  spot,  very  much  resembling  Cottayam  in 
Travancore.  The  house  stands  on  a  gentle  eminence  on  the 
borders  of  a  lake,  the  banks  of  which  on  all  sides  are  covered 
with  trees  and  verdure.  We  crossed  the  water  in  a  boat  beauti- 
fully ornamented  with  palm,  in  which  we  were  received  by  two 
clergymen,  who  conducted  us  to  the  house.  On  the  entrance  his 
Lordship  \\as  received  by  the  five  missionaries  present,  and  Mr. 
Lambrick  read  an  address,  in  the  name  of  all,  most  touchingly 
and  admirably  worded,  expressive  of  their  joy  at  ranging  them- 
selves under  his  paternal  authority,  their  gratitude  for  his  kind- 
ness, their  thankfulness  for  his  present  visit,  and  at  seeing  a 
friend,  a  protector,  and  a  father  in  their  lawful  superior,  and  then 
laying  before  him  the  account  of  their  state  and  prospects.  I 
assure  you  it  was  neither  read  nor  heard  without  tears.  The  Bishop 
(who  had  had  no  previous  intimation  of  their  purpose)  returned 
a  most  kind  and  affectionate  answer,  attaching  to  himself  still 
more  strongly  the  hearts  which  were  already  his  own.  His  utter- 
ance was  ready,  and  only  checked  by  the  strong  emotion  of  the 
time.  We  were  embowered  in  the  sequestered  woods  of  Ceylon, 
in  the  midst  of  a  heathen  population,  and  yet  here  was  a  trans- 
action worthy  of  the  Apostolic  age — a  Christian  bishop,  his  heart 
full  of  lo\  e,  and  full  of  zeal  for  the  cause  of  his  Divine  Master, 
received  in  his  proper  character  by  a  body  of  missionaries  of  his 
own  Church,  who,  with  full  confidence  and  affection,  ranged  them- 
selves under  his  authority  as  his  servants  and  fellow-labourers — 
men  of  devoted  piety,  of  sober  wisdom,  whose  labours  were  at 
that  moment  before  us,  and  whose  reward  is  in  heaven.  It 
realised  my  ideas  of  true  missionary  labour.  Immediately  after 
the  address  we  went  into  the  house  to  family  prayers.  Mr. 
Lambrick  read  a  chapter  of  Isaiah  (the  63rd),  and  the  Bishop 
prayed,  repeating,  according  to  his  custom,  a  selection  of  the 
Church  prayers,  and  introducing  before  the  thanksgiving  a  prayer 
for  that  institution,  and  all  that  were  engaged  in  its  service." 

"Kandy,  Sunday,  18//1  September. 
"  The  Bishop  held  a  confirmation  this  morning  at  seven.  The 
church  is  at  present  held  in  the  audience-hall  of  the  late  king. 


288 


BISHOP  HEBER 


About  thirty  persons  were  confirmed.  His  Lordship  dehvered  an 
address,  much  akered  from  the  one  I  had  heard  from  him  before, 
and  excellently  adapted  to  local  circumstances.  The  power  of 
seizing  on  such  topics  of  interest  is  one  among  the  many  beauties 
of  his  rich  and  powerful  mind.  After  we  returned  home,  before 
breakfast,  I  was  mentioning  to  him  how  forcibly  it  had  struck  me, 
during  the  service,  that  in  that  hall,  where  a  few  years  ago  the 
most  savage  tyrant  received  his  miserable  subjects — and  even 
the  English  embassy  was  compelled  to  be  almost  prostrate  before 
him — a  Christian  bishop  was  now  administering  the  solemn 
ordinances  of  our  religion.  He  leaned  his  head  on  his  hand  and 
burst  into  tears.  How  wonderful  is  the  providence  of  God  in 
the  economy  of  His  Church  !  Nev^er  was  any  people  entrusted 
with  such  power  of  doing  good  as  England  now  is,  nor  is  it  pos- 
s\h\e  in  the  nature  of  things  that  this  power  can  long  endure  ;  her 
dominion,  like  that  of  other  nations  that  have  preceded  her, 
must  pass  away.  What  a  fearful  responsibility  on  the  govern- 
ment and  its  ministers,  on  the  nation  and  all  its  children,  and 
(above  all)  on  our  Church  and  its  rulers  !  Such  was  our  conversa- 
tion in  the  palace  of  the  Emperor  of  Kandy  on  this  memorable 
morning.  At  eleven  the  Bishop  preached  on  Luke  x.  42  ('  One 
thing  is  needful '),  and  administered  the  sacrament  to  about  forty 
communicants.  He  has  established  also  an  evening  service  at 
four  o'clock,  and  we  had  a  vei-y  good  congregation  of  soldiers 
and  others.  The  men  of  the  83rd  especially  are  most  thankful  to 
the  Bishop  for  this  new  service." 

"  BADDfiGAMA,  September. 
"  The  Bishop  consecrated  the  church,  and  preached  to  a  very 
numerous  congregation,  both  of  Europeans  and  natives.  .  .  . 
We  have  been  walking  this  evening  round  the  verandah  of  the 
church,  overlooking  the  surrounding  country  in  the  still  repose  of 
a  beautiful  moonlight,  and  talking  of  past  and  future  days.  In 
the  verandah,  at  the  east  end,  is  the  grave  of  their  first  native 
convert,  Daniel,  who  died  seven  months  ago.  His  loss  to  the 
mission  was  irreparable  ;  but  his  death  may  do  more  than  even 
his  life  could  have  done.  He  was  full  of  energy  and  zeal,  in- 
dependent in  character,  and  high  in  intellect.  His  family  are 
most  of  them  still  heathen,  and  reside  in  the  neighbourhood. 
His  brother,  who  was  committed  by  him  solemnly  to  the  mission- 
aries at  his  death,  says  that  since  that  time  he  has  never  doubted 
about  Christianity  :  the  death-bed  of  Daniel  convinced  him  of  its 
truth." 


I50MBAY  AND  CEYLON 


289 


In  a  letter  to  his  mother  Heber  gives  his  own  picture  of 
Ceylon  and  his  experiences  : — 

"...  All  which  we  have  seen  is  e.xtremely  beautiful,  with 
great  variety  of  mountain,  rock,  and  valley,  covered  from  the 
hill-tops  down  to  the  sea  with  unchanging  verdure,  and,  though 
so  much  nearer  the  Line,  enjoying  a  cooler  and  more  agreeable 
temperature  than  either  Bombay  or  Calcutta.  Here  I  have  been 
more  than  ever  reminded  of  the  prints  and  descriptions  in  Cook's 
Voynj^i's.  The  whole  coast  of  the  island  is  marked  by  the 
same  features,  a  high  white  surf  dashing  against  coral  rocks, 
which,  by  the  way,  though  they  sound  very  romantically,  differ 
little  in  appearance  from  sandstone  ;  a  thick  grove  of  coco-trees, 
plantains,  and  bread-fruit  thrusting  their  roots  into  the  very 
shingles  of  the  beach,  and  hanging  their  boughs  over  the  spray  ; 
low  thatched  cottages  scattered  among  the  trees,  and  narrow 
canoes,  each  cut  out  of  the  trunk  of  a  single  tree,  with  an  out- 
rigger to  keep  it  steady,  and  a  sail  exactly  like  that  used  in 
Otaheite.  The  people,  too,  w^ho  differ  both  in  language  and 
appearance  from  those  of  Hindostan,  are  still  more  like  the  South 
Sea  Islanders,  having  neither  turban  nor  cap,  but  their  long  black 
hair  fastened  in  a  knot  behind,  with  a  large  tortoise-shell  comb, 
and  seldom  any  clothing  but  a  cotton  cloth  round  their  waist,  to 
which  the  higher  ranks  add  an  old-fashioned  blue  coat,  with  gold 
or  silver  lace,  and  a  belt  and  hanger  to  match,  a  fashion  which 
they  apparently  received  from  their  Dutch  conquerors,  and  which 
has  a  very  whimsical  appearance.  The  Kandians,  who  inhabit 
the  interior  of  the  island,  and  whose  country,  as  you  know,  was 
conquered  by  the  English  about  ten  years  ago,  wear  a  more 
showy  dress,  and  one  more  unifomily  Oriental.  They  are  now 
all  tolerably  reconciled  to  our  government,  as  well  as  the  Singhal- 
ese, or  inhabitants  of  the  sea  coast,  and  their  chiefs  are  rapidly 
acquiring  a  knowledge  of  our  language  and  imitating  our  customs. 

"  We  went  up  with  the  Governor,  Sir  Edward  Barnes,  who,  as 
well  as  Lady  Barnes,  has  shown  us  much  attention  and  kindness, 
to  Kandy,  where  I  preached,  administered  the  sacrament,  and 
confirmed  tw^enty-six  young  people  in  the  audience-hall  of  the 
late  King  of  Kandy,  which  now  serves  as  a  church.  Here, 
twelve  years  ago,  this  man,  who  was  a  dreadful  tyrant,  and  lost 
his  throne  in  consequence  of  a  large  party  of  his  subjects  apply- 
ing to  General  Brownrigge  for  protection,  used,  as  we  were  told, 
to  sit  in  state  to  see  those  whom  he  had  condemned  trodden  to 
death  and  tortured  by  elephants  trained  for  the  purpose.  Here 
U 


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he  actually  compelled,  by  tomients,  the  wife  of  one  of  his  prime 
ministers,  whom  he  suspected  of  plotting  against  him,  to  bruise 
with  her  own  hands  two  of  her  children  to  death  with  a  pestle  and 
large  mortar,  before  he  put  her  to  death  also  ;  and  here  at  that 
time  no  Englishman  or  Christian  could  have  appeared  except  as 
a  slave,  or  at  the  risk  of  being  murdered  with  every  circumstance 
of  cruelty.  And  now  in  this  very  place  an  English  Governor  and 
an  English  congregation,  besides  many  converted  natives  of  the 
island,  were  sitting  peaceably  to  hear  an  English  bishop  preach  ! 

"Christianity  has  made  perhaps  a  greater  progress  in  this 
island  than  in  all  India  besides.  The  Dutch,  while  they  governed 
the  country,  took  great  pains  to  spread  it  ;  and  the  black 
preachers  whom  they  left  behind,  and  who  are  still  paid  by  the 
English  Government,  show  a  very  great  reverence  for  our  Com- 
mon Prayer,  which  is  translated  into  their  language,  and  a  strong 
desire  to  be  admitted  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  One 
excellent  man,  named  Christian  David,  I  ordained  last  year  in 
Calcutta,  and  there  are  several  more  in  training.  There  are  also 
some  very  meritorious  missionaries  in  the  island.  One  of  them 
is  the  son  of  our  neighbour,  Mr.  Mayor,  of  Shawbury,  who,  to- 
gether with  another  Shropshire  man,  Mr.  Ward,  has  got  together 
a  very  respectable  congregation  of  natives,  as  well  as  a  large 
school,  and  built  a  pretty  church,  which  I  consecrated  last  Sun- 
day, in  one  of  the  wildest  and  most  beautiful  situations  I  ever 
saw.  The  effects  of  these  e.xertions  have  been  very  happy,  both 
among  the  Roman  Catholic  descendants  of  the  Portuguese,  and 
the  heathen.  I  have  confinned,  since  I  came  into  the  island,  360 
persons,  of  whom  only  sixty  were  English,  and  in  the  great 
church  at  Colombo  I  pronounced  the  blessing  in  four  different 
languages,  English,  Portuguese,  Singhalese,  and  Tamul. 

"Those  who  are  still  heathen  are  professedly  worshippers  of 
Buddh,  but  by  far  the  greater  part  reverence  nothing  except 
the  Devil,  to  whom  they  offer  sacrifices  by  night,  that  he  may 
do  them  no  harm.  Many  of  the  nominal  Christians  are  infected 
with  the  same  superstition,  and  are  therefore  not  acknowledged 
by  our  missionaries  ;  otherwise,  instead  of  300  to  be  confirmed,  I 
might  have  had  several  thousand  candidates.  Many  thanks  for 
the  kind  trouble  you  took  to  get  subscriptions  for  the  female 
schools  at  Calcutta.  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  raise  nearly 
money  enough  for  them  in  India.  On  the  whole,  I  rejoice  to 
believe  that,  in  very  many  parts  of  this  great  country,  '  the  fields 
are  white  already  to  harvest ' ;  and  it  is  a  circumstance  of  great 
comfort  to  me  that  in  all  the  good  which  is  done,  the  Church  of 


BOMBAY  AND  CEYLON 


England  seems  to  take  the  lead,  that  our  Liturgy  has  been 
translated  into  five  languages  most  used  in  these  parts  of  the 
world,  and  that  all  Christian  sects  in  the  East  seem  more  and 
more  disposed  to  hold  it  in  reverence.  Still  little,  very  little  is 
done  in  comparison  with  all  which  is  to  do. — Ever  your  affection- 
ate son,  Reginald  Calcutta." 

For  the  first  three  weeks  of  the  variable  month  of  October, 
when  the  monsoons  change,  the  Discovery  was  becahned  or 
tossed  by  baffling  winds  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  A  terrific  gale, 
which  wrecked  many  a  native  vessel,  spared  the  Bishop  and 
his  party  ;  they  were  able  to  rescue  thirty-one  of  the  Laccadive 
islanders,  whose  frail  craft,  trading  with  cocoa-nuts  to  Bengal, 
had  foundered.  At  length,  on  the  21st  of  October,  the  Bishop 
of  Calcutta  landed  at  Chandpal  Ghat,  historic  spot,  under  the 
usual  salute,  having  spent  sixteen  months  on  the  first  part  only 
of  the  visitation  of  his  vast  jurisdiction.  The  careful  and  ex- 
perienced annalist  of  Christianity  in  India, ^  Mr.  Hough,  de- 
clares that  Reginald  Heber  had  travelled  over  a  greater  extent 
of  country,  and  had  encountered  more  perils  than,  perhaps, 
had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  missionary  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostles. 

'  The  History  of  Christianity  in  India  from  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  Era.  By  the  Rev.  James  Hough,  M.A.,  late  Chaplain  to  the 
Hon.  E.  I.  Company  at  Madras,  vol.  v.,  London,  i860. 


CHAPTER  XII 


MADRAS 
1825 

Hei;er  had  planned  his  visitation  of  Northern  India,  Western 
India,  and  Cc)lon  so  that  he  might  attend  to  the  business  of 
the  diocese  at  Calcutta,  and  return  to  the  south  of  India  to 
begin  his  tour  of  inspection  from  Madras  by  Christmas.  His 
wife  was  of  opinion  that,  but  for  the  repeated  detentions  in 
the  first  tour,  he  might  have  avoided  the  great  heats  of 
Southern  India,  and  have  "  been  sometime  longer  spared  to 
his  family  and  to  that  country  for  whose  eternal  welfare  he  was 
labouring  to  the  utmost  of,  and,  alas  !  beyond  his  strength  and 
ability."  But  he  loved  such  toil,  and  all  India,  native  and 
European,  responded  to  his  self-sacrificing  energy  and  genial 
loving-kindness.  More  than  once,  as  Hindoos  like  the  head 
of  the  Mullik  family  in  Calcutta  joined  with  British  civilians 
and  soldiers  in  the  generous  support  of  Bishop's  College  and  of 
the  Missionary  and  Bible  Societies  and  charities  for  which  he 
pleaded,  Reginald  Heber  declared  to  his  wife  that  if  it  were 
possible  to  educate  their  children  in  India  and  to  preserve 
their  health,  he  would  give  up  all  thoughts  of  returning  to 
England,  and  would  end  his  days  among  the  objects  of  his 
solicitude. 

His  first  act,  on  returning  to  Calcutta,  was  to  repeat  his 
successful  experience  in  Bombay  and  Ceylon,  where  he  had 
secured  the  personal  assistance  of  the  high  officials  and  resi- 
dents in  forming  a  diocesan  committee  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  followed  by  collections  in  all  the 


MADRAS 


293 


churches.  What  Mountstuart  Elphinstonc  had  thus  done  in 
Bombay,  Lord  Amherst  and  the  officials  were  invited  to  do  in 
Calcutta,  at  a  meeting  held  in  the  Bishop's  house  after  he  had 
preached  on  Advent  Sunday  a  missionary  sermon.  At  that 
time  of  transition  in  the  history  of  the  infant  Evangelical 
Church  of  India,  he  was  prudent  in  giving  the  assurance  that 
nothing  in  the  proceedings  would  give  offence  to  our  uncon- 
verted fellow-subjects,  or  be  at  variance  with  a  wise  respect  for 
their  feelings  and  prejudices.  Meanwhile,  he  was  carefully 
fostering  the  mission  under  Mr.  Christian  which  he  had  opened 
among  the  Sontal  and  other  Paharees,  and  had  resolved  to 
extend  its  operations  to  the  Garrow  and  other  highlanders  in 
Assam,  for  whom  the  Welsh  Presbyterians  have  recently  done 
much. 

Richard  Heber,  who  survived  Reginald  till  the  year  1833, 
had  written  to  him,  in  the  interests  of  the  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Christian  Knowledge,  a  letter  which  called  forth  a 
statement  of  his  labours  for  that  as  well  as  the  other  two 
Missionary  Societies  of  the  Church  of  England,  after  which  he 
proceeds : — 

"Calcutta,  i<,th  December  1825. 
"  In  spite  of  these  labours  and  drawbacks,  and  of  the  far 
heavier  and  more  painful  circumstance  of  separation  from  home, 
and  my  oldest  and  dearest  friends,  I  should  be  extremely  ungrate- 
ful if  I  did  not  speak  well  of  India,  and  acknowledge  myself  happy 
in  my  present  situation.  .  .  .  The  circumstance  which  I  have 
felt  most  painfully  was  niy  long  separation  from  my  wife  and 
children,  a  measure,  however,  which  my  subsequent  experience 
of  some  of  the  countries  which  I  had  to  pass  through  sufficiently 
showed  to  have  been  no  unnecessary  sacrifice.  In  Madras,  whither 
I  am  going  the  latter  end  of  next  month,  I  yet  hope  that  they  may 
accompany  me,  but  I  am  not  certain,  as  it  must  depend  on  in- 
formation which  I  am  collecting.  Mrs.  Middleton  made  the 
journey,  and  though  I  am  compelled  to  go  at  a  later  period  of 
the  season,  and  in  hotter  weather,  I  have  no  doubt  that  Emily 
might  go  with  perfect  safety.  But  for  the  children  I  am  not  without 
apprehensions.  At  all  events  my  separation  from  them  will,  I 
trust,  be  far  shorter  than  the  last  ;  nor,  though  I  hear  much  of 
the  beauty  of  the  south  of  Malabar,  and  look  forward  with  great 
interest  to  seeing  the  S)'rian  Christians,  can  I  think  that  Emily 
will  lose  so  much  of  glorious  jirospect  and  romantic  manners 


294 


BISHOP  HEBER 


as  she  did  by  not  accompanying  me  up  the  crags  of  Almora,  and 
ainong  the  wild  and  warlike  tribes  of  Malwa.  Bombay  and  Ceylon 
we  saw  together,  and  she,  as  well  as  I,  was  greatly  delighted  with 
both,  particularly  the  natural  beauties  of  the  latter.  The  former 
was  rendered  particularly  interesting  to  us  from  the  renewal  of  my 
old  acquaintance  with  Archdeacon  Barnes,  and  from  the  terms  of 
intimacy  on  which  we  lived  with  Mr.  Elphinstone,  the  most  re- 
markable man  in  India  for  talents,  acquirements,  undeviating 
good-nature,  and  flow  of  conversation.  We  were  his  guests  for 
almost  three  months,  and  I  found  something  fresh  to  admire  or 
like  in  him  every  day.  Everybody  in  India  does  him  justice  as 
an  excellent  man  of  business,  a  '  grand  homme  d'etat  et  de 
guerre,'  a  conqueror  and  a  legislator.  .  .  . 

"  Emily  and  I  have  gained  much  in  our  Calcutta  society  by 
the  appointments  of  Sir  Charles  Grey  and  Lord  Combermere. 
Grey  is  looking  extremely  well,  and  very  little  altered  from  what 
he  was  in  England  ;  he  is  very  popular  here,  so  is  also  Lord 
Combermere,  from  his  constant  accessibility  and  close  attention 
to  business,  as  well  as  by  his  good-natured  and  cordial  manners. 
He  is  now,  I  apprehend,  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Bhurtpoor,  un- 
less the  usurper  of  that  little  State  has  submitted  without  coming 
to  blows.  If  the  war  really  goes  on,  and  the  city  falls.  Lord 
Combermere  will  add  greatly  to  his  own  reputation  and  that  of 
the  English  name,  inasmuch  as  Bhurtpoor  is  the  only  fortress, 
and  the  Jats  the  only  people  in  India  who  boast  that  they  have 
never  been  subdued  either  by  the  Mogul  emperors  or  the  English, 
having,  as  you  are  aware,  beaten  off  Lord  Lake  with  great  loss  in 
many  successive  campaigns.  I  did  not  see  the  city,  except  at  a 
distance,  but  passed  through  the  country,  and  was  very  hospit- 
ably and  civilly  treated.  I  thought  them  a  very  fine  military 
race,  and  their  territory  one  of  the  best  governed  in  the  north. 

"The  army  under  Lord  Combermere  is  considerable,  amount- 
ing to  near  25,000  men,  with  a  fine  train  of  artillery;  there  are 
only,  however,  about  3000  of  these  Europeans.  .  .  .  Should  he 
fail,  it  is  unhappily  but  too  true  that  all  northern  and  western 
India,  every  man  who  owns  a  sword,  and  can  buy  or  steal  a 
horse,  from  the  Sutlej  to  the  Nerbudda,  will  be  up  against  us, 
less  from  disliking  us  than  in  the  hope  of  booty.  And  still  more 
unfortunately,  it  is  not  easy  to  say  where  another  army  can  be 
found  to  meet  them,  now  that  Bombay  is  fully  occupied  on  the 
side  of  Sindia,  and  all  the  strength  of  British  India  in  Ava. 
From  Ava  and  Arracan  the  news  continues  to  be  bad  ;  it  is  but 
too  certain  that  our  army  is  melting  away  with  sickness,  to  which 


MADRAS 


295 


natives  and  Europeans  appear  equally  liable  ;  and  there  are 
various  rumours  as  usual  in  Calcutta  yet  more  gloomy. 

"With  Emily's  best  love  and  good  wishes,  and  my  own  daily 
prayers  for  your  happiness,  and,  if  it  pleases  God,  our  prosper- 
ous meeting  again,  believe  me,  dear  Heber,  ever  your  affectionate 
brother,  REGINALD  Calcutta." 

A  week  before,  he  had  written  to  the  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge,  urging  it  to  send  more  missionaries 
to  the  Coromandel  coast,  from  Madras  city  to  Palamkotta,  and 
pleading  that  these  should  be  Englishmen.  "  While  I  am 
thus  anxious  for  the  speedy  arrival  of  missionaries,  I  trust 
I  am  not  illiberal  in  expressing  a  hope  that  the  Society  will 
supply  us  with  episcopally  ordained  clergymen."  Such  had 
been  the  difficulty  even  up  to  the  year  1826  in  finding  clergy- 
men of  the  Church  of  England  willing  to  go  out  as  foreign 
missionaries,  that  the  three  Anglican  Societies  had  employed 
Lutherans  with  orders  generally  considered  Presbyterian.  Of 
these  Schwartz  was  the  greatest,  but  undoubtedly  several  were 
men  of  imperfect  theological  and  literary  training.  The 
Church  Missionary  Society  encouraged  three  of  its  Lutheran 
missionaries  to  apply  for  re-ordination  according  to  the  rites 
of  the  Church  of  England.  To  the  Rev.  Deocar  Schmidt,  who 
had  sought  to  dissuade  the  Bishop  from  this  act,  he  replied  in 
a  letter  which  states  the  case  of  those  who  hold  the  grace  of 
orders,  and  believe  in  the  historical  validity  of  apostolical 
succession,  with  a  charity  which  unchurches  none  in  the 
highest  sense. 

"Calcutta,  22,rd  December  1825. 
"...  You  suppose  that  I  generally  admit  ordination  by 
presbyters  without  a  bishop  to  be  valid  ;  I  do  not  admit  this. 
All  I  said  is  that,  when  a  Christian  nation  has,  by  unfortunate 
circumstances,  lost  its  apostolical  succession  of  bishops,  the 
continuance  of  ministers  being  a  thing  absolutely  needful  and 
essential,  those  good  men  are  not  to  be  censured  who  perpetuate 
it  by  the  best  means  in  their  power.  And  were  I  to  return  to 
Germany,  I  would  again,  as  before,  humbly  and  thankfully  avail 
myself  of  the  preaching  and  sacramental  ordinances  of  the 
Luthcraii  Evangelical  Church,  not  doubting  that  they  are  a  true 
church  of  Christ,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  with  them,  as  I 
trust  He  is  with  us  also. 


296 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  But,  though  an  imperfect  ordination  may,  doubtless,  be 
accepted  by  our  Lord  and  common  Master,  and  though  a  Church, 
under  circumstances  such  as  I  have  described,  may  remain  a 
true  church  still,  it  does  not  follow  that,  where  this  supposed 
deficiency  may  be  supplied,  it  may  not  be  advisable  for  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel  either  to  seek  for  fresh  orders  himself,  or  to  counsel 
others  to  do  so.  And  this  may  be  more  especially  advisable 
where  his  or  their  ministerial  utility  is  likely  to  be  much  aug- 
mented by  a  closer  union  with  a  Church  under  (what  I  conceive 
to  be)  the  ancient  discipline.  We  (that  is,  the  members  of  our 
Church)  have  no  right  or  inclination  to  judge  other  national 
Churches.  But  our  own  flocks  have  a  sacred  right  to  be  well 
satisfied  as  to  the  Divine  commission  of  those  whom  other 
spiritual  rulers  set  over  them.  Even  where  the  smallest  doubt 
exists  of  the  perfection  of  the  order  received,  and  their  conformity 
with  apostolical  practice,  it  may  be  a  part  of  Christian  prudence 
to  choose  the  safer  side.  And  even  where  this  doubt  is  not  felt 
by  ourselves,  yet,  if  its  existence  in  others  impedes  our  usefulness, 
we  have  the  highest  possible  warrant,  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul  and 
Timothy,  for  condescending,  even  in  a  more  material  point,  to 
the  failings  and  prejudices  of  our  brethren.  Accordingly,  if  a 
preacher  ordained  in  the  method  practised  in  Germany  foresees  a 
marked  advantage  to  Christ's  cause  in  a  closer  alliance  with  his 
Episcopalian  brethren,  I  see  not  that  he  dishonours  his  previous 
commission  by  seeking  our  praj-ers  and  blessing  in  the  form 
which  we  think  most  conformable  to  God's  will.  And  the 
humility  is,  surely,  anything  but  blamable  which  stoops  for  a 
time  to  even  an  inferior  degree  and  inferior  duties  than  those 
which  he  has  already  exercised. 

"  For  I  see  no  weight  in  the  argument  that  holy  orders  cannot 
be  repeated  without  profanation.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  matter 
of  doi/l)t  whether  the  first  orders  were  valid  or  no,  and,  in  the 
very  fact  of  fresh  orders  being  given  without  a  formal  renunciation 
of  the  former,  it  is  plain  that  the  fresh  orders  are  tacitly  stib 
condifione.  But,  secondly,  there  is  nothing,  as  I  conceive,  in  the 
nature  of  ordination  which  makes  it  profane  to  repeat  it  on  just 
grounds,  or  reasonable  scruple  on  the  part  of  the  Church  or  its 
rulers.  Ordination  stands  on  a  different  ground  from  baptism. 
It  is  not  a  new  creation,  but  a  solemn  de\otion  of  a  man  to  a 
particular  office,  accompanied  by  prayer,  and,  as  we  believe,  an 
accession  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  though  a  man  can  be  only 
once  jrgaicra/c,  he  may  he  often  reneu'ed  and  qiiickcticd  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  there  is  no  reason,  a  priori,  why  he  should  not 


MADRAS 


297 


receive  an  outward  ordination  (as  he  certainly  may  receive  an 
itiivard  call)  to  a  new  sphere  of  action  in  the  Church,  as  well  as 
to  a  new  office  in  it.  I  do  not  say  that  this  has  ever  been  the 
practice  of  the  Church,  though  I  still  think  that  something  very 
analogous  to  it  may  be  found  in  Acts  xiii.  But  I  say  this  to  show 
the  difference  between  the  two  cases  of  re-baptizing  and  re-ordain- 
ing, and  that  the  same  risk  of  profanation  does  not  attach  to  the 
last  as,  I  admit,  does  in  eveiy  doubtful  case  to  the  former. 

"Accordingly,  I  need  not  remind  you  that  the  great  body  of 
ancient  Christians  allowed  the  validity  of  baptism  (the  matter 
and  7i'ords  being  correct),  whether  conferred  by  heretics,  schis- 
matics, or  laymen.  But  though  the  ancient  Church  never  re- 
baptized,  they  most  certainly  re-ordained  in  the  case  of  the 
Meletian  and  Novatian  clergy,  as  appears  from  Theodoret, 
Ecclcs.  Hist.,  !.  i.  ix.,  and  Coftc.  Niccn.,  can.  8. 

"  Still,  I  have  no  right  or  desire  to  judge  devout  and  learned 
divines  of  another  national  Church.  If  they  come  to  sojourn 
among  us,  satisfied  with  the  commission  which  they  have  received, 
or  if  they  desire  our  help  in  their  efforts  to  convert  the  heathen,  I 
gladly  meet  them  as  Christians  and  fellow-labourers.  I  rejoice 
sincerely  that  Christ  is  made  known  so  widely  through  their 
means.  I  gladly  admit  them  (as  I  should  desire  myself  to 
be  admitted  in  Germany  or  Holland)  to  the  communion  of  our 
Church,  and  to  all  that  interchange  of  good-will  and  good  offices 
(as  in  the  case  of  the  missionary  societies  of  our  Church)  which 
is  essential  to  our  carrying  on  the  Gospel  work  in  concert.  But 
I  am  not  inconsistent  with  these  feelings  if  I  think  that  the  differ- 
ence between  us,  though  it  should  not  interrupt  our  communion, 
is  in  itself  a  misfortune  to  be  remedied.  Nor  do  I  feel  the  less 
love  and  reverence  for  their  character  and  talents  when  I 
earnestly  wish  them  to  become  in  all  points  like  ourselves,  except 
those  sins  of  infirmity,  of  which  I  am  mournfully  conscious." 

Accordingly,  on  St.  Andrew's  Day  1825,  Bishop  Heber 
had  held  an  ordination  in  St.  John's  Cathedral,  when  the 
Rev.  T.  Reichardt  of  Basel,  Rev.  W.  Bowley,  and  Rev. 
Abdool  Massee'h,  Henry  Martyn's  convert,  all  having  already 
received  Lutheran  ordination,  were  admitted  to  the  order  of 
deacons,  and  on  the  21st  December  to  the  order  of  priests. 
Mr.  Robinson  thus  records  the  double  events  : — 


298 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  Calcutta,  30M  November. 
"...  All  the  clergy  dined  with  the  Bishop  this  evening.  We 
were  nineteen  at  table — the  largest  number  of  clergy  ever  present 
at  one  time  in  India.  I  sat  by  Abdool  Massee'h,  and  we  had  a 
great  deal  of  talk  in  Persian,  as  he  speaks  no  English.  After  the 
usual  toasts  of  '  The  Preacher  and  his  Sermon,'  and  '  The  newly- 
admitted  Deacons,'  the  Bishop  gave  'The  Native  Church  at  Agra 
and  its  founder,  Mr.  Corrie.'" 

"  2U/  December. 

"  How  delightful  have  been  the  interesting  solemnities  of  to- 
day !  Abdool  Massee'h  and  the  others  who  were  before  admitted 
deacons  were  ordained  priests.  Archdeacon  Corrie  preached  an 
excellent  sermon,  in  which  you  will  easily  imagine  his  feelings 
almost  overcame  his  utterance,  for  they  were  all  in  some  sense 
his  children.  Mr.  Adlington,  a  young  missionary  whom  he  had 
educated  almost  entirely,  was  ordained  deacon  at  the  same  time. 
Poor  Abdool  Massee'h  has  been  ill  some  days,  and  was  quite 
overpowered  by  the  service  ;  he  nearly  fainted  after  the  act  of 
ordination.  The  good  Bishop  went  through  the  Hindostani 
part  of  the  ser\-ice  without  difficulty.  One  of  the  most  interest- 
ing solemnities  of  our  Church  at  all  times  is  the  admission  of  new 
candidates  to  the  sacred  office,  and  the  pledge  so  solemnly  de- 
manded and  willingly  given,  which  separates  them  for  ever  from 
the  sccularities  of  the  world  to  the  stewardship  of  God's  family. 
But  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  this  country,  the  tried  and 
well-known  character  of  the  men  themselves,  and  the  bright 
prospects  of  futurity  which  opened  on  the  mind  even  from 
this  early  and  partial  dawn,  all  conspired  to  make  the  scene 
before  us  one  of  deeper  and  more  powerful  interest.  It  was 
an  awful  and  touching  moment  when  the  Veni  Creator  was 
sung  by  the  congregation,  the  Bishop  reading  the  verses  from 
the  altar,  surrounded  by  twenty  of  his  clergy  kneeling  in  their 
surplices.  All  seemed  to  feel  the  beautiful  devotion  of  this 
heavenly  hymn,  and  to  join  with  one  heart  in  the  sublime  in- 
vocation of  the  ever-blessed  Spirit.  Who  can  doubt  that  such 
prayers  were  answered  ?  Father  Abraham  was  present  with  his 
vicar  during  the  whole  service.  He  embraced  the  Bishop  at  the 
door  of  the  vestry,  and  I  attended  him  to  his  carriage,  where  he 
and  Ter  Joseph  embraced  me,  and  expi-essed  their  pleasure  at 
thus  joining  with  us,  and  their  sense  of  the  honour  with  which 
they  had  been  received. 


MADRAS 


299 


"All  the  clergy  dined  with  the  Bishop  in  the  evening,  where  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  having  the  venerable  Abdool  Massee'h  by  my 
side.  He  speaks  Persian  with  perfect  fluency,  and  much  greater 
purity  than  most  of  the  learned  Musalmans  in  this  country.  He 
has  great  urbanity  and  courtesy  of  manners,  beautifully  and 
harmoniously  blended  with  the  gravity  which  becomes  his 
advanced  age,  his  fervent  piety,  and  his  sacred  office.  His  con- 
versation is  varied  and  accomplished,  and  is  not  only  marked  by 
the  knowledge  of  the  world  which  his  former  life  and  his  missionary 
labours  have  naturally  given  him,  but  adorned  with  the  lighter 
elegancies  of  the  Persian  classics,  and  enriched  with  the  rare 
accompaniment  of  good  taste  and  judicious  reflection.  Its 
peculiar  charm,  however,  is  the  happy  adaptation  of  the  exquisite 
expressions  of  Saadi  and  Nizami,  which  are  familiar  to  him, 
to  the  purposes  of  Christian  feeling.  This  happy  talent  has  made 
him  very  acceptable  to  the  more  educated  among  his  countrymen, 
and  he  is  a  welcome  visitor  at  the  Court  of  Oudh,  where  the  King 
has  more  than  once  engaged  him  in  conversation  on  the  subject 
of  Christianity,  and  in  controversy  on  its  evidences  and  doctrines 
with  some  of  his  learned  Moollahs.  He  often  meets  with  hard 
names  and  angry  looks  from  the  more  bigoted  amongst  them  ; 
but  his  soft  answer  generally  turns  away  their  wrath,  and  while 
they  hate  his  religion,  they  are  still  constrained  to  admire  the 
man.  He  drank  wine  with  me  at  dinner,  but  it  was  only  to  avoid 
the  rudeness  of  a  refusal ;  and  he  explained  to  me  afterwards  that 
he  very  seldom  touches  it,  and  would  rather  abstain  from  what 
might  lessen  his  influence  among  the  Mohammedans.  I  fear  he 
carries  this  abstinence  beyond  his  strength,  for  the  infirmities  of 
age  are  fast  growing  on  him,  and  he  requires  a  more  generous 
diet.  He  seemed  much  pleased  with  the  distinguished  kindness 
and  respect  the  Bishop  paid  him,  but  it  was  the  pleasure  of  a  man 
who  valued  the  distinction  for  the  sake  of  him  who  conferred  it, 
and  who  loved  the  praise  of  God  more  than  the  praise  of  men." 

"  2Ziid  December. 

"...  The  Bishop's  conversation  this  e\  cning  was  remarkably 
brilliant  and  entertaining.  It  happened  to  turn  on  a  great  variety 
of  subjects,  and  displayed  the  riches  of  his  memory,  and  his  play- 
ful and  happy  fancy.  The  description  he  gave  us  of  the  meetings 
in  Wales,  which  he  had  witnessed,  for  competition  in  music  and 
poetrj',  was  very  interesting,  particularly  the  rusticity  of  the 
candidates  for  fame,  literally  the  coarsest  and  humblest  persons. 


300 


BISHOP  HEBER 


He  was  present  on  the  occasion  with  Lady  Harriet  Wynne,  who 
declared  herself  so  delighted  at  what  she  heard,  that  she  ex- 
pressed her  intention  of  having  her  son,  then  lately  born,  edu- 
cated in  Welsh  as  well  as  English.  The  Bishop  having  announced 
this  for  her,  the  company  received  it  with  glad  applause,  and  a 
peasant  in  blue  worsted  stockings,  who  had  not  been  a  competitor 
for  the  prize,  stepped  forth  and  pronounced  some  beautiful  coup- 
lets in  answer,  of  which  something  like  this  is  the  substance  : 
'  Strike  the  harp  with  the  hand  of  joy,  for  two  messages  of  joy 
are  brought  to  us — that  our  chief  still  loves  his  people,  and  that 
a  child  is  born  to  his  house.  What  shall  I  prophesy  of  the  boy 
that  is  born  ?  Brave  of  heart  like  Cadwallon,  and  tuneful  as  the 
bards  of  old.  May  he  live,  and  may  his  hand  perform  the  deeds 
of  Cadwallon,  and  his  harp  echo  the  strains  of  Taliessin  1 '  This 
was  a  man  with  the  rough  manners  and  coarse  dress  of  a  Welsh 
peasant ! " 

The  station  of  Chinsurah,  adjoining  the  oldest  of  the  Com- 
pany's settlements  in  Bengal  at  Hoogli,  was  this  year  ceded 
by  the  Dutch,  and  the  quaint  old  church  fell  to  be  supplied 
by  Bishop  Heber.  He  settled  Mr.  Morton  as  missionary- 
chaplain  there,  and  he  was  welcomed  by  Mr.  Mundy  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  and  by  Mr.  Lacroix,  missionary 
from  the  Netherlands,  who  now  joined  that  Society.  Heber 
and  Lacroix,  who  became  the  greatest  preacher  in  BengaH 
down  to  his  death,  forty  years  after,  were  men  of  apostolic 
spirit,  and  worthy  of  each  other.^  After  preaching  twice  on 
8th  January  1826,  and  next  day  examining  a  long-deserted 
house  amid  a  jungly  garden,  with  the  view  of  making  it  the 
parsonage.  Bishop  Heber  was  seized  with  the  same  deadly 
fever  which,  under  similar  circumstances,  had  been  the  cause 
of  Dr.  John  Leyden's  death.  The  disease  affected  his  head, 
making  him  deaf  for  a  long  time,  a  circumstance  to  which  his 
wife  ascribed  the  last  fatal  event  in  the  bath  at  Trichinopoly 
three  months  after. 

Like  Henry  Martyn,  Reginald  Heber  was  always  the  friend 
of  the  Armenian  people  and  their  Church — older  than  Con- 

'  The  mission  here  was  soon  after  given  up  by  the  Society  for  tlie  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  and  was  made  over  by  tlie  London  Missionary  Society  to 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  wliich  has  long  had  a  College  and  an  Evan- 
gelistic and  Medical  Mission  at  Hoogli-Chinsurah. 


MADRAS 


301 


stantine.  From  their  centre  of  Echmiatzin,  under  the  shadow 
of  Ararat,  they  are  to  be  found  in  cities  so  remote  as  Ispahan 
and  Cairo,  Calcutta  and  Bombay,  Constantinople  and  Peters- 
burg, Moscow  and  Amsterdam.  The  oldest  of  Christian 
peoples,  the  Gregorian  Armenians  are  the  finest  and  least  effete 
of  the  Oriental  Churches.  To  the  commercial  virtues  of  the 
Jews  they  add  the  historic  claims  and  high  character  of  the 
earliest  Christian  kingdom.  In  Calcutta  and  Chinsurah  they 
have  long  formed  a  community  respected  at  once  for  their 
intellectual  culture  and  active  loyalty.  Even  of  the  United 
Armenians  of  the  Roman  Mechitarist  order  on  the  Venetian 
isle  of  San  Lazzaro,  Byron  wrote,  when  his  better  nature 
asserted  itself,  as  "  the  priesthood  of  an  oppressed  and  noble 
nation,  which  has  partaken  of  the  proscription  and  bondage  of 
the  Jews  and  the  Greeks,  without  the  sullenness  of  the  former 
or  the  servility  of  the  latter."  ^  With  their  picturesque  church 
of  St.  Nazareth,  in  its  quadrangle  of  old  gravestones,  shut  in 
from  the  bustle  of  the  China  Bazaar  of  Calcutta,  Heber  was 
familiar. 

On  his  arrival  from  Ceylon  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  found 
waiting  for  him  the  Vertapet  Abraham,  sent  from  his  convent 
on  Mount  Sion  by  the  Armenian  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  as 
commissary  to  the  churches  in  India.  How  he  took  part  in 
the  ordination  of  priests  and  deacons  in  St.  John's  Cathedral 
has  been  told.  Attended  by  Ter  Joseph,  the  vicar  of  Calcutta, 
and  Messrs.  Jacob  and  Avdall  (the  last  about  to  print  his 
translation  of  the  History  of  Armenia  -  by  Michael  Chamich), 
Abraham  visited  Bishop's  College.  "  I  read  over  to  Father 
Abraham  our  Bishop's  letter  to  the  Syrian  Metropolitan  in 
Malabar,"  writes  Robinson.  "  He  was  exceedingly  delighted 
with  it.    '  It  is  apostolic,'  said  he,  '  like  one  of  St.  Paul's.'  " 

In  the  last  of  his  letters  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
written  when  he  was  beginning  his  voyage  to  Madras,  Bishop 
Heber  expressed  the  hope  that  in  the  six  months  before  August 
1826  he  might,  by  God's  blessing,  "  complete  the  circuit  of  the 
southern  stations  of  the  Presidency  of  Madras  and  the  Syro- 
Malabaric  Churches  in  Travancore,  besides  paying  a  short  visit 
to  Ceylon."  He  sought  directions  and  assistance  in  enabling  the 

'  See  Good  Words.  "The  .Armenians,  their  Past  and  Future,"  vol.  xix. 
-  In  two  volumes,  printed  at  Bishop's  College  Press,  Calcutta,  1827. 


302 


BISHOP  HEBER 


clergy  in  India  to  marry,  under  pressing  circumstances,  without 
the  canonical  preliminaries  of  banns  or  license.  What  he 
wrote  seventy  years  ago  is,  unhappily,  true  still,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  efforts  of  one  of  his  successors.  Bishop  Cotton, 
when  Lord  Lawrence  was  Viceroy  :  "  It  is  not  possible  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  temptations,  and  almost  inevitable 
ruin  of  body  and  soul  to  which  a  European  soldier,  without 
a  wife,  is  exposed  in  India,  without  feeling  the  propriety  of 
throwing  as  few  obstacles  as  possible  in  the  way  of  lawful 
marriage."  In  this  respect  the  British  Army  in  India  is  worse  off 
than  in  Heber's  time,  although  hill  stations,  the  railway  system, 
and  the  troopships  obviate  the  purely  military  objections  to 
the  withdrawal  of  the  rule  which  practically  forbids  the  soldier 
to  marry. 

Mrs.  Heber  had  been  no  less  busy  in  promoting  the  educa- 
tion of  native  girls.    Mr.  Robinson  writes  : — 

"  l^h  January  1825. 
"This  morning  the  Archdeacon  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson 
breakfasted  at  the  palace.  Mrs.  Heber  is  a  very  active  friend  to 
the  new  system  of  female  education,  and  has  been  successful 
during  our  late  journey  in  procuring  large  additions  to  its  funds. 
These,  together  with  a  princely  donation  of  20,000  rupees  from  a 
rich  native  here,i  emboldens  them  to  buy  land  and  build  a  central 
school  without  delay.  The  Bishop  was  busy  in  drawing  plans 
for  the  building.  The  rest  of  the  morning  I  spent  with  him, 
despatching  forty-two  letters  to  different  stations,  desiring  the 
clergy  to  preach  in  aid  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel,  and  soliciting  the  patronage  of  the  principal  persons 
among  the  laity." 

' '  28M  January. 

"  The  Government  have  secured  accommodations  for  us  on  the 
Bussorah  Merchant^  which  is  moving  slowly  down  the  river.  Our 
whole  population  is  thrown  into  great  joy  by  the  news,  just  arrived, 
of  the  fall  of  Bhurtpoor  :  Lord  Combennere  took  it  by  stomi  on 
the  1  8th  instant.  The  attack  was  most  triumphant,  though  it  is 
the  strongest  place  in  India.  We  had  30,000  men  before  it  and 
I  50  pieces  of  artillery  :  our  loss  is  very  considerable.  The  storm 
has  covered  Lord  Combermere  with  glory  ;  and  his  merciful  as 


1  Rajah  Budinath  Roy. 


MADRAS 


303 


well  as  soldici-like  conduct  greatly  endears  him  to  tlie  Army.  The 
Bishop,  who  has  watched  with  lively  interest  the  progress  of  the 
siege,  from  his  connection  with  the  Commander-in-Chief  and  his 
personal  regard  for  him,  rejoices  greatly  in  this  splendid  termina- 
tion of  his  first  Indian  campaign,  and  dwells  with  great  delight  on 
the  noble  forbearance  he  has  shown,  not  only  to  the  inhabitants 
in  the  progress  of  hostilities,  but  in  the  determination  which  he 
avowed  to  him  before  he  left  Calcutta  of  rather  protracting  an 
affair,  which  an  instant  attack  might  have  rendered  more  brilliant 
for  himself,  in  order  to  prevent  the  greater  waste  of  human  life. 
One  of  his  Lordship's  arrangements  I  cannot  help  mentioning  to 
you,  because  the  Bishop  frequently  notices  it,  and  as  it  is  evidently 
so  exactly  in  accordance  with  his  own  generous  nature  :  several 
small  parties  were  posted  at  different  points  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  city  in  order  to  facilitate  the  flight  of  the  defenceless  inhabit- 
ants, and  secure  them  from  injury  and  insult." 

Compelled  by  the  approaching  hot  season  to  leave  behind 
him  his  wife  and  children,  Heber  began  his  second  tour 
of  visitation  on  30th  January  1826.  He  and  Robinson 
dropped  down  with  the  tide  and  current  to  the  inn  at  Fultah, 
forty  miles  below  Calcutta.  There  he  found  Dr.  Joshua 
Marshman  on  his  way  to  England.  ^Vhen  breakfasting  together 
they  talked  of  the  conversion  of  India  by  the  agency  of  its  own 
sons.  As  Mrs.  Marshman,  as  well  as  Mrs.  Heber,  had  been 
left  behind,  the  Bishop  playfully  asked  what  the  world  would 
say  to  the  desertion  of  their  wives  by  two  ininisters  of  the 
Gospel.  They  parted  with  expressions  of  mutual  esteem  and 
regret.  Dr.  Marshman,  his  son  tells  us,^  often  remarked  that 
Heber  was  the  most  formidable  enemy  of  dissent  he  had  ever 
encountered,  for  his  disposition  was  so  candid  and  amiable 
that  every  one  felt  ashamed  to  differ  from  him. 

Heber  was  still  ailing  when  he  went  on  board,  with  a  little 
library  of  books,  which  he  devoured  at  the  rate  of  two  volumes 
a  day,  besides  attending  to  his  heavy  correspondence.  Robin- 
son writes  : — 

"  yd  February  1S26. 
"  The  Bishop  came  into  my  cabin  after  breakfast,  and  said  he 
found  that,  besides  the  European  crew,  there  was  a  detachment  of 


^  Life  and  Times  of  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward,  by  John  Clark  Marsh- 
man, vol.  ii.  (Longmans). 


304 


BISHOP  HEBER 


invalid  soldiers  on  board  returning  to  England,  probably  in  a  very 
ignorant  and  demoralised  state,  after  their  long  residence  in  this 
country,  and  that  he  thought  we  might  be  exceedingly  useful  to 
them  in  the  course  of  the  voyage.  He  proposed,  therefore,  that 
we  should  go  down  alternately  every  morning  to  instruct  them 
and  pray  with  them.  I  begged  him  not  to  interrupt  his  own  more 
important  avocations  for  these  low^er  duties,  which  I  would  gladly 
undertake  alone,  if  he  would  commission  me  to  do  so  ;  but  he 
would  by  no  means  consent  to  relinquish  his  share  in  them.  '  I 
have  too  little,'  said  he,  '  in  my  situation,  of  these  pastoral  duties 
which  are  so  useful  to  the  minister  as  well  as  to  his  people  ;  and 
I  am  delighted  at  the  opportunity  thus  unexpectedly  afforded  me — 
it  will  remind  me  of  dear  Hodnet.  Besides,  it  is  very  possible 
that  the  mere  circumstance  of  my  going  down  may  impress  them 
more  strongly,  and  incline  them  more  to  listen  to  us  both.'  He 
had  his  prayer-book  in  his  hand,  and  after  speaking  to  the  com- 
manding officer,  went  below  immediately.  Is  not  this  worthy  of 
a  bishop  ?  What  inexpressible  dignity  do  such  simple  labours 
add  to  his  high  and  sacred  office  !  We  had  family  prayers  in  the 
cuddy  after  tea,  which  w  ill  be  continued  during  the  voyage.  I 
need  not  tell  you  that  all  the  passengers  gladly  assented  to  the 
proposal.  What  is  there  that  he  could  ask  them  that  they  would 
not  assent  to  for  all  are  delighted,  even  on  this  short  acquaint- 
ance, with  the  life  and  variety  of  his  conversation  and  the  gentle- 
ness of  his  manners." 

"4//i  February. 

"  On  going  down  to  the  poor  soldiers  this  morning,  I  found 
the  effect  of  the  Bishop's  visit  yesterday  to  be  just  what  might 
have  been  expected.  His  kindness  and  condescension  have  pre- 
pared them  to  receive  with  thankfulness  all  that  is  said  to  them  ; 
and  before  I  began  to  read,  they  could  not  help  saying,  as  they 
collected  round  me,  '  Only  think  of  such  a  great  man  as  the  Bishop 
coming  between  decks  to  pray  with  such  poor  fellows  as  we  are!'  " 

' '  dill  February. 

"The  Bishop  is  busily  employed  re-writing  his  charge  for 
Madras.  After  delivering  it  there  it  will  be  printed  ;  but  not  till 
he  has  gone  through  the  south,  and  is  able  to  speak  of  the  success 
of  missionary  labours  from  his  own  knowledge.  He  means  to 
add  notes,  containing  much  valuable  information  of  that  kind,  and 
which  from  him  will  come  with  weight  and  authority.    He  asked 


MADRAS 


305 


me  to-night  if  I  thought  he  ought  to  publish  as  much  as  he  had 
written  in  answer  to  the  Abbe  Dubois.  I  told  him,  certainly  ; 
that  the  Abbe's  work  had  done  much  harm  in  a  large  circle,  and  that, 
though  others  had  answered  him,  a  'blow  from  his  great  hammer' 
was  still  wanted.  He  was  kind  enough  to  say  he  would  show  me 
the  manuscript  before  it  went  to  the  press.  He  says  the  report 
given  of  it  in  the  Calcutta  papers  was  so  accurately  and  well  done 
that  his  friends  concluded  at  home  he  had  already  published  it, 
and  quarrelled  with  him  for  not  sending  them  copies  ;  and  that 
he  had  been  much  affected  by  the  last  letter  which  he  had  received 
from  his  aged  mother,  who,  on  reading  the  extracts  in  the  news- 
papers, writes  to  him  that  she  understands  the  tenderness  of  his 
motive  in  not  sending  her  a  copy,  lest  he  should  alarm  her  fears 
by  his  mention  of  the  climate  as  one  ^lohcrc  labour  is  often  death."' 

"  25M  February. 

"  We  anchored  in  Madras  Roads  this  morning. 

"  The  season  is  so  far  advanced  for  travelling  that  the  Bishop 
can  only  afford  to  spend  a  few  weeks  at  the  Presidency,  despatch- 
ing the  business  of  more  immediate  importance,  and  deferring 
other  matters  of  general  regulation  till  his  return  from  the  South. 
This  will  just  afford  time  for  the  necessary  arrangements  for  our 
journey  ;  but  so  many  things  will  be  crowded  into  this  brief  space 
that  I  fear  his  strength  will  be  exhausted.  A  large  packet  of 
letters  was  waiting  for  him  ;  and,  among  others  of  great  and 
pressing  interest  from  different  quarters  of  his  diocese,  there  is  one 
from  the  Syrian  Metropolitan,  entreating  his  aid  and  assistance 
in  the  difficulties  that  had  unexpectedly  arisen  from  the  cabals 
formed  to  oppose  the  establishment  of  his  authority." 

"Sunday,  261  k  February. 
"  The  Bishop  preached  in  the  morning  at  St.  George's,  the 
Presidency  church,  to  an  overflowing  congregation.  His  text 
was  Phil.  i.  21,  To  die  is  gain,  and  his  sermon  one  of  his  most 
impressive  and  masterly  compositions.  The  remembrance  of  this 
his  first  sermon  at  Madras  will  never  be  effaced  from  the  minds 
of  those  who  heard  it,  not  only  from  its  many  striking  beauties, 
but  as  being  almost  a  prophetic  intimation  that  he  was  then 
hastening  to  the  last  scene  of  his  earthly  labours.  How  little  did 
they  imagine  while  hanging  on  his  lips  that  the  triumph  of  the 
text  was  so  soon  to  be  fulfilled  in  him ! " 


X 


3o6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  27///  February. 

"After  breakfasting  with  the  Governor,  and  calHng  on  Sir 
Ralph  Palmer,  the  Bishop  was  engaged  with  visitors  till  three 
o'clock.  He  was  much  struck  with  the  beauty  and  situation  of 
Mowbray,  on  the  banks  of  a  small  river,  and  commanding  a  view 
of  St.  Thomas's  Mount,  and  was  as  much  delighted  at  meeting  an 
old  college  friend  in  the  Chief  Justice,  as  I  was  in  recognising 
most  unexpectedly  a  school-fellow  of  my  own  standing  at  Rugby 
in  one  of  the  other  judges.  A  few  such  meetings,  he  said,  would 
almost  make  us  forget  the  seas  that  separate  us  from  our  countrj'. 
At  five,  after  an  early  dinner,  I  attended  his  Lordship  to  the 
Female  Asylum,  an  admirable  institution  containing  about  300 
girls,  and  supported  partly  by  Government,  partly  by  private  con- 
tributions, and  partly  by  their  own  skill  and  industrj'  in  embroidery 
and  other  work.  Dr.  Rottler,  the  senior  missionary  of  the  Society 
for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  has  been  the  chaplain  for 
more  than  twenty  years,  and  the  venerable  man  was  catechising 
them  when  we  arrived.  The  Bishop  begged  him  to  proceed  with  his 
instructions,  and  was  moved  even  to  tears  by  the  affectionate  and 
simple  manner  in  which  he  taught  them,  and  the  evident  attach- 
ment of  the  children  to  their  aged  pastor.  The  Bishop  addressed  a 
few  words  to  them  in  his  own  winning  and  impressive  manner,  and 
gave  them  a  holiday  to-morrow.  A  public  dinner  at  Government 
House  closed  a  busy  and  e.xhausting  day." 

"ist  March. 

"  In  the  afternoon  he  visited  the  Male  Asylum,  an  institution 
justly  celebrated  as  the  place  where  Dr.  Bell  first  introduced  the 
system  of  education  which  has  since  become  famous  throughout 
the  world.  A  noble  building  is  half  finished  for  the  schools  ;  but 
the  house,  where  Dr.  Bell  formerly  resided,  appears  to  be  but 
little  changed  except  from  the  injury  of  time,  and  is  still  occupied 
by  Mr.  Roy  as  the  Superintendent  of  the  Asylum.  There  may 
perhaps  be  an  unwillingness  to  alter  what  reverence  for  the 
founder  of  the  National  System  of  Education  in  Great  Britain 
induced  Bishop  Middleton  to  denominate  classic  ground.  His 
Lordship  examined  three  classes,  and  begged  a  holiday  for  the 
boys  to-morrow.  He  thought  it  by  far  the  best  specimen  of  the 
system  he  had  ever  seen,  and  was  not  less  pleased  with  the 
appearance  of  health  and  enjoyment  among  the  lads  in  their  noble 
playground,  which  forms  a  striking  contrast  with  the  confined 
premises  of  the  Free  School  in  Calcutta.    Many  of  these  soldiers' 


MADRAS 


307 


orphans  have  Uirned  out  excellent  schoohnasters,  surveyors,  and 
even  architects  ;  and  nearly  the  whole  expense  is  defrayed  by  the 
Male  Asylum  Press,  conducted  by  sixteen  young  men,  ancl  ten 
apprentices,  all  selected  from  the  Institution." 

"  \oth  March. 

"The  Bishop  held  his  visitation  at  St.  George's,  attended  by 
fourteen  of  the  clergy.  His  charge  was  much  improved  by  the 
introduction  of  a  good  deal  of  matter  connected  with  subjects  of 
local  interest,  and  especially  some  additional  remarks  on  the  Abbe 
Dubois.  Mr.  Lawrie,  the  junior  minister  of  the  Scotch  Church,  called 
on  the  Bishop  after  the  service,  and  introduced  the  missionaries  of 
the  London  Society,  for  here,  as  elsewhere,  admiration  and  respect 
for  him  seem  to  form  a  point  of  union  for  members  of  every 
Church.  A  request  has  been  made  to  him  by  some  of  the  lead- 
ing members  of  society  that  he  would  print  the  sermons  preached 
during  his  residence  at  Madras,  and  he  has  consented  to  do  so 
on  his  return.  Several  times,  as  we  have  been  riding  by  St. 
George's,  he  has  remarked  its  beautiful  structure  rising  amidst  the 
palms  that  surround  it,  as  a  striking  emblem  of  the  peaceful  and 
gradual  establishment  of  Christianity  in  India  ;  and  to-day,  as  we 
were  going  to  church,  he  mentioned  his  intention  of  complying 
with  this  request,  and  promised  to  make  a  sketch  of  St.  George's 
for  the  frontispiece  of  the  little  volume  with  this  appropriate  motto — 
Cresci/i'  fe/iccs,  eoce  crcscitc  Palmer 

As  in  Bombay,  the  year  before,  Heber  had  enjoyed  the 
society  of  the  greatest  administrator,  Mountstuart  Elphinstone, 
in  Madras  he  soon  learned  to  appreciate  the  extraordinary 
ability  and  high  character  of  another  of  the  group  of  remark- 
able Scotsmen  then  ruling  the  East — Sir  Thomas  Munro. 
That  Glasgow  boy  had  raised  himself,  alike  as  soldier  and 
statesman,  to  be  the  noblest  benefactor  of  the  millions  of  South 
and  Central  India.  When  in  18 19  the  Hon.  Hugh  Elliot 
ceased  to  be  Governor  of  Madras,  and  Lord  William  Bentinck 
declined  the  appointment,  George  Canning  was  about  to 
nominate  another  as  the  successor,  but  on  the  Court  of 
Directors  suggesting  the  name  of  Munro,  the  great  statesman 
at  once  said,  "  Nay,  if  you  have  such  a  card  as  that,  it  must 
be  played."  At  the  usual  parting  dinner  given  to  the  new 
Governor  by  the  Court  of  Directors  at  the  London  Tavern, 
Canning  declared  that  whatever  the  sources  from  which  power 


3o8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


is  derived,  all  were  agreed  that  it  should  be  exercised  for  the 
people,  and  if  ever  an  appointment  had  taken  place  to  which 
this  might  be  ascribed  as  the  distinguishing  motive,  it  was 
Munro's.  Lord  William  Bentinck,  himself  soon  to  become 
Governor-General,  hastened  to  congratulate  Munro  that  his 
great  and  noble  services  had  at  last  toiled  through  to  their 
just  distinction.  The  officer  who  had  ruled  Madras  for  five 
years,  after  carrying  out  the  military  and  revenue  systems  for 
the  good  of  its  millions  of  peasantry,  was  a  man  after  the  heart 
of  Heber,  and  they  appreciated  each  other.^  "There  was 
something  so  mild,  so  amiable,  and  so  intelligent  about  Heber 
that  it  was  impossible  not  to  love  him,"  wrote  Munro.  Mr. 
Robinson  gives  us  this  picture  of  the  two  men  and  of  Lady 
Munro  : — 

"  iiih  March. 

"  The  Bishop,  attended  by  the  Archdeacon  and  eight  of  the 
clergy,  visited  the  Nawab,  or  rather  his  uncle  the  Regent,  Azim 
Jah  Bahadur  (for  the  Nawab  himself  is  an  infant).  We  were  in 
our  robes,  and  the  Bishop  in  his  Doctor's  gown. 

"  Thence  we  went  in  our  robes  to  Lady  Munro,  to  whom  the 
Bishop  presented  the  vote  of  thanks  from  the  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge,  for  her  kind  patronage,  particularly  of 
the  schools  at  Vepery,  to  which  she  has  been  in  the  habit  of  pre- 
senting annual  prizes  from  her  own  bounty.      I  have  seldom 


1  When,  in  1821,  George  Canning  resigned  the  office  of  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control,  Munro  wrote  to  him  in  terms  like  more  than  one  passage  of 
Heber's  Journal :  "  I  always  dread  changes  at  the  head  of  the  India  Board, 
for  I  fear  some  downright  Englishman  may  at  last  get  there  who  will  insist  on 
making  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  Hindoos.  ...  I  have  no  faith  in  the  modern 
doctrine  of  the  rapid  improvement  of  the  Hindoos  or  any  other  people.  The 
character  of  the  Hindoos  is  probably  much  the  same  as  when  Vasco  da  Gama 
first  visited  India,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  it  w-ill  be  much  better  a  century 
hence."  After  urging  the  opening  of  vernacular  and  English  schools,  by  which, 
however,  "we  shall  not  raise  their  moral  character,"  he  recommended  the 
opening  of  high  offices  to  the  natives,  which,  ten  years  after.  Lord  \\'illiam 
Bentinck  began,  and  which  has  continued  in  increasing  numbers  to  the  present 
time.  But  he  added,  "All  that  we  can  give  them  without  endangering  our 
own  ascendency  should  be  given.  .  .  .  The  sphere  of  their  employment  should 
be  extended  in  proportion  as  we  find  that  they  become  capable  of  filling 
properly  higher  situations."  See  the  late  Dr.  John  Bradshaw's  Sir  Thomas 
Munro  and  the  British  Settlement  of  the  Madras  Presidency  in  Sir  W.  W. 
Hunter's  series  of  the  "  Rulers  of  India."  See  also  the  maxims  and  suggestions 
collected  from  Munro's  writings  at  pages  282,  283  of  Gleig's  Life,  1861  (John 
Murray). 


MADRAS 


309 


witnessed  a  more  interesting  or  affecting  picture  :  the  beauty  and 
gracefulness  of  Lady  Munro,  the  grave  and  commanding  figure  of 
the  Governor,  the  youthful  appearance  and  simple  dignity  of  the 
dear  Bishop,  the  beloved  of  all  beholders,  presented  a  scene  such 
as  few  can  ever  hope  to  witness.  Sir  Thomas  listened  with  deep 
interest  to  every  word  that  the  Bishop  addressed  to  her,  and  then 
said,  while  he  pressed  his  hand  and  the  tears  were  rolling  down 
his  venerable  cheeks,  '  iMy  Lord,  it  will  be  in  vain  for  me  after 
this  to  preach  humility  to  Lady  Munro  ;  she  will  be  proud  of  this 
day  to  the  latest  hour  she  lives.'  '  God  bless  you.  Sir  Thomas  ! ' 
was  the  only  answer  the  feelings  of  the  Bishop  allowed  him  to 
make  ;  '  and  God  bless  you,  my  Lord  ! '  was  the  earnest  and 
affectionate  reply." 

"  \  2th  March. 

"  The  Bishop  preached  to  an  overflowing  congregation  at  the 
chapel  in  the  Black  Town  in  the  morning,  and,  great  expedition 
having  been  used  in  completing  the  preparations  for  lighting  St. 
George's,  he  preached  the  first  evening  lecture  there,  which  he  has 
established  instead  of  the  former  afternoon  service.  The  church 
was  crowded  to  excess,  and  the  Bishop's  farewell  address,  from 
the  words  He  sent  them  away,  was  a  forcible  and  touching  appeal 
to  the  hearts  of  his  audience,  especially  begging  them  to  continue 
their  attendance  at  this  new  service,  which  he  had  suggested  for 
their  greater  comfort,  and  charging  them  to  remember  him  in 
their  prayers.  The  somewhat  singular  text,  together  with  the 
felicitous  transition  from  the  former  and  argumentative  part  of  his 
sermon,  to  the  concluding  address,  and  its  application  to  the 
immediate  circumstances  of  the  occasion,  made  a  lasting  impression 
on  the  minds  of  his  auditors.  Alas  !  they  heard  him  again  no 
more  ;  ^  ke  sent  tkein  away'  with  his  last  blessing  !  " 

At  Madras,  in  the  closing  passages  of  his  Jdiirnal,  Heber, 
for  the  first  time  in  those  years  of  incessant  activity  and  fre- 
quent exposure  under  the  Indian  sun,  describes  himself  as 
"  almost  worn  out."  In  a  fortnight  he  had  preached  eleven 
times,  had  presided  at  a  large  meeting  of  the  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Christian  Knowledge,  had  visited  six  schools,  had  given 
two  large  dinner  parties,  and  had  received  and  paid  visits  in- 
numerable. This  he  had  done  in  a  climate  which  he  found 
decidedly  hotter  than  the  March  he  had  spent  in  Calcutta, 
when  the  season  was  unusually  sultry.    He  pronounced  Vepery 


BISHOP  HEBER 


church  to  be  the  finest  Gothic  ecclesiastical  building  he  had 
seen  in  India,  and  sketched  it  as  on  the  other  side.  This  is 
the  suburban  church  of  Madras  in  which  the  present  Arch- 
bishop Maclagan  worshipped  when  stationed  there  as  a 
captain  of  Madras  Sepoys. 

The  last  three  weeks  of  his  life  were  spent  by  Heber  in  the 
character  of  chief  missionary,  in  which  he  delighted,  ^\'ith  a 
zeal,  a  self-sacrifice,  and  an  apostolic  wisdom  which  Ziegen- 
balg  and  Schwartz  had  never  surpassed,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Missionary  Societies  since  in  the  fruitful  fields  of  South  India 
have  rarely  equalled,  he  marched  from  town  to  town  and 
village  to  village  ever  about  the  Father's  business.  He  left 
Madras,  having  formed  more  than  one  missionary  project, 
which  he  hoped  to  complete  on  his  return.  Notably  did  he 
anticipate  what  it  fell  to  others,  and  of  other  Churches,  to 
establish  long  after,  and  on  a  wider  basis — the  establishing  of  a 
seminary,  not  merely  for  catechists  and  schoolmasters,  but  for 
the  training  of  native  ministers  "for  the  immediate  supply  of 
the  Peninsula."  In  spiritual,  as  in  civil  affairs,  he  would,  at 
that  early  time,  have  taught  the  natives  self-reliance,  self- 
support,  and  missionary  extension.  His  letters  to  his  wife 
contain  these  passages  : — 

"Madras,  27//;  February  1S26. 
"...  I  breakfasted  this  morning  with  Sir  T.  Munro.  He  was 
very  kind,  and  expressed  regret  that  the  want  of  accommodation 
in  the  Government  House  prevented  his  asking  me  there  during 
my  stay.  In  the  course  of  my  conversation  with  him  I  saw  many 
marks  of  strong  and  original  talent." 

"  Madras,  March  1826. 
"  The  chaplains  here  are  a  remarkably  good  and  gentlemanly 
set,  and  I  am  greatly  impressed  with  reverence  for  the  worthy  old 
missionary.  Dr.  Rottler.  The  weather  is  very  hot — as  hot,  they 
say,  as  it  is  likely  to  be  here  ;  but  I  am  extremely  well.  Nobody 
could  be  kinder  or  more  considerate  than  both  Sir  Thomas  Munro 
and  Mr.  Hill  have  shown  themselves.  They  have  assigned  me  a 
most  comfortable  set  of  tents  ;  assigned  me  (what  you  will  be  glad 
to  hear)  a  surgeon,  Mr.  Hyne,  the  deputy  assay-master,  said  to 
be  a  very  clever  and  agreeable  man,  and  a  young  officer,  Captain 
Harkness,  by  way  of  guide,  and  to  command  the  escort,  who 
knows  the  language  and  country  of  Travancore  well,  besides 


312 


BISHOP  HEBER 


lending-  me  two  saddle-horses,  and  a  small  stock  of  plate,  my  own 
being,  as  they  tell  me,  insufficient  for  the  numbers  of  which  my 
party  will  now  consist.  All  this  consideration  is  so  much  the 
kinder  in  Sir  Thomas  Munro,  because  he  is  now  much  occupied 
with  domestic  distress.  Lady  Munro  being  about  to  return  to 
England  with  one  of  her  children  who  is  ill.  Lady  Munro  is  a 
very  lovely  woman,  and  of  remarkably  pleasing  manners  ;  ever)'- 
body  here  seems  to  regret  most  honestly  her  going  away,  saying 
that  her  whole  conduct  has  been  made  up  of  good  manners,  good 
heart,  and  sound  solid  judgment.  I  do  not  know  that  higher 
praise  could  be  given  to  a  '  lady  governess.' 

"I  set  out  on  Monday,  the  13th,  via  Trichinopoly,  etc.,  to 
Travancore.  I  shall,  I  am  told,  find  it  very  hot,  but,  with  care, 
shall  run  no  risk  in  point  of  health.  There  are  some  beautiful 
churches  here ;  the  other  buildings  are  less  handsome  than  I 
expected,  the  country  less  green  than  Bengal,  and  the  climate,  at 
this  season  at  least,  considerably  warmer.  Much  as  I  feel  your 
absence,  I  cannot  repent  of  having  left  you  behind.  No  accom- 
modations are  to  be  obtained  in  the  Neelgherry  hills,  and  to  take 
children  at  this  season  through  Travancore,  everybody  tells  me 
would  be  madness." 

"Camp  near  Alumbuka,  one  Day's  March  from  Pondicherrv, 
xbth  Man-h  1826. 

"  I  am  very  well,  and  am  travelling  comfortably  through  a 
pretty  country,  in  which  almost  everything  reminds  me  of  Ceylon 
(I  mean  its  sea-coast).  I  have  excellent  tents  and  horses,  and 
like  my  fellow-travellers  very  well.  Sir  T.  Munro  has  written  to 
all  the  Collectors  on  the  road  to  assist  me  in  every  way  (as  was 
done  by  the  Government  of  Bengal  on  my  former  tour),  and  has 
himself  taken  great  pains  to  settle  everything  for  me  beforehand. 
Captain  Harkness,  the  commander  of  the  escort,  says  he  has  even 
directions,  in  case  Mr.  Hyne  should  fall  ill,  to  press  the  first 
surgeon,  or  assistant-surgeon,  whom  he  may  find,  to  accompany 
me  as  far  as  may  be  necessary." 

By  palanquin  from  Madras  city,  the  Bishop  reached  his 
camp  at  Sadras,  the  old  Dutch  fort,  thirty-five  miles  to  the 
south.  ^A'ith  curious  interest  he  inspected  and  sketched  the 
five  Dravidian  monolithic  temples  and  the  ridge  of  granite  into 
which  caves  were  cut  about  700  a.d.,  famous  as  the  Seven 
Pagodas  of  Mahabalipooram,  the  city  destroyed  by  the  Chalook- 


MADRAS 


313 


yas,  "  with  its  ruins  laslied  by  the  surf,  and  the  romance  of  its 
submarine  palaces." 

"  15//;  Mank  1S26. 
"  We  found  our  tents  pitched  near  a  beautiful  tope  of  mango- 
trees  at  the  village  of  AUumparva,  famous  along  the  whole  coast 
for  the  finest  oysters.  The  Tahsildar  met  the  Bishop  with  all 
due  honours,  but  rather  exceeded  the  instructions  he  had  received 
from  Government  in  bringing  the  dancing-girls  as  well  as  the 
village  music.  Both  form  part  of  the  usual  honours  paid  to  persons 
of  rank  in  travelling,  but  the  Government,  with  very  proper  con- 
sideration, in  their  circular  instructions  to  the  prov  incial  authorities, 
have  expressly  forbidden  the  former  as  an  indecorous  accompani- 
ment to  the  progress  of  a  Christian  Bishop."  1 

"  l-]tk  March. 

"  We  arrived  at  Pondicherry  after  an  intensely  hot  march,  and 
found  our  tents  pitched  on  a  burning  sand,  about  a  mile  from  the 
town.  .  .  .  We  were  received  at  Government  House  in  a  most 
cordial  and  hospitable  manner,  and  among  the  guests  at  dinner 
the  Bishop  was  pleased  to  find  the  Vicomte  de  Richmont,  who  has 
lately  arrived  from  Europe  to  succeed  to  the  Government,  and 
brought  letters  for  his  Lordship  from  Mr.  Elphinstone  at  Bombay. 
He  is  an  accomplished  man,  and  has  travelled  much  in  India, 
Persia,  and  many  countries  of  Europe.  His  fellow-traveller, 
Monsieur  Belanger,  is  also  an  intelligent  young  man  ;  and  an  old 
gentleman,  who  has  employed  many  years  in  antiquarian  researches, 
and  has  seen  much  of  the  northern  pro\  inces  of  Hindostan,  was 
not  the  least  amusing  of  the  party.  The  conversation  of  these 
gentlemen  with  the  Bishop  was  lively  and  brilliant.  He  talks 
French  with  considerable  ease  and  fluency,  and  it  would  be 
difficult  for  men  of  any  country  to  start  a  subject  of  conversation, 
however  foreign  from  his  own  immediate  pursuits,  with  which  his 
various  and  discursive  reading  has  not  made  him  in  some  degree 
familiar  ;  there  is  a  playfulness  also  in  his  mode  of  communicating 
what  he  knows,  and  a  tact  and  consideration  for  the  national  and 
literary  prejudices  of  others,  that  particularly  endeared  him  to  the 
little  circle  of  to-day. 

"After  dinner,  while  the  Bishop  walked  out  with  M.  Cordier, 
the  Governor,  I  went  with  the  rest  of  our  party  to  visit  the  college 
and  church  of  the  Jesuits. 

"  On  my  return,  I  found  the  Bishop  had  been  requested  to  con- 


At  this  place  the  Journal  of  the  Bishop  himself  breaks  off. 


3'4 


BISHOP  HEBER 


firm  four  young  persons,  the  children  of  an  Enghsh  officer,  deceased, 
by  a  French  lady.  We  went  immediately  to  their  house,  and  he 
spent  an  hour  in  examining  and  conversing  with  them  on  the 
subject  of  religion.  I  was  much  struck  with  the  patience  and 
earnestness  of  his  manner  in  this  interesting  service,  and  not  only 
the  ease,  but  the  manifest  delight  with  which  he  left  the  crowded 
party  of  the  Governor,  which  was  an.xiously  expecting  his  return, 
for  this  une.\pected  call  of  duty.  The  fatigue  of  travelling,  the 
excessive  heat,  and  the  constant  engagements  of  the  day  had  all 
been  extremely  exhausting,  and  we  have  to  march  at  three  to- 
morrow morning  ;  yet  he  did  not  shorten  in  any  degree  what  it 
was  right  to  say." 

"  March. 

"A  long  and  sultry  march  brought  us  to  Cuddalor,  where  we 
were  hospitably  received  by  Colonel  Eraser  at  his  beautiful  villa  of 
Mount  Capper.  .  .  .  There  are  here  at  present  i8o  soldiers,  of 
whom  140  are  Protestants.  Most  of  them  are  married  to  native 
Christian  women  ;  and  Major  Hicks,  the  commanding  officer,  has 
an  excellent  school  for  the  education  of  their  children." 

"  19M  March. 

"  The  Bishop  preached  in  the  morning  an  admirable  sermon 
from  Rom.  vii.  24,  25,  containing  many  excellent  remarks  on  that 
difficult  chapter  which  might  be  of  great  use  to  the  student  in 
theology,  at  the  same  time  that  the  whole  sermon  was  full  of 
practical  benefit  to  the  poor  soldiers  who  formed  the  bulk  of  the 
congregation.  The  church  is  a  respectable  old  building,  belong- 
ing to  the  Mission,  but  the  accommodations  very  inconvenient, 
and  much  in  want  of  repairs.  The  chaplain  is  allowed  the  use  of 
it  for  the  performance  of  English  service,  and  on  this  ground  the 
Bishop  intends  to  apply  to  Government  for  a  small  monthly  rent, 
as  well  as  for  the  necessary  repairs  and  alterations.  He  has 
given  Mr.  Rosen  a  plan  for  a  different  arrangement  of  pews  and 
benches,  by  which  it  may  hold  nearly  200  persons.  It  was  built 
in  1766-7  from  the  materials  of  Fort  St.  David's,  the  works  of 
which  had  been  destroyed  during  the  war.  The  church  register 
reaches  back  to  the  year  1768. 

"  In  the  evening  service,  which  the  Bishop  established  to-day, 
and  desired  Mr.  Allen  to  continue,  he  confirmed  thirteen  candidates, 
and  there  was  an  excellent  congregation  of  soldiers,  whose  attend- 
ance is  altogether  voluntary.  There  are  two  Tamil  services  for 
the  native  Christians  ;  but  their  numbers  appear  very  small — not 


MADRAS 


3'5 


more  than  fifty  or  sixty  persons, — and  those  chiefly  of  the  serving 
or  labouring  classes,  and  the  wives  of  soldiers." 

"  20ih  March. 

"  The  Bishop  has  passed  a  most  fatiguing  day  in  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  Mission  property,  and  devising  some  plan  for  its  future 
improvement." 

"  21  si  March. 

"  We  made  a  night's  run  to  Chillumbrum  (Chedamburam),  a 
mode  of  travelling  which  the  Bishop  exceedingly  dislikes,  but  it  is 
necessary  in  order  to  enable  us  to  spend  Easter  Day  at  Tanjor." 

Heber  was  unusually  interested  in  this  the  first  of  the  five 
great  Siva  pagodas  of  South  India  he  had  seen,  with  its 
obscene  "  secret  "  represented  by  a  curtain,  behind  which  the 
phallic  emblem  is  invisible.  From  his  camp  he  wrote  to  his 
friend,  AVynn,  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  on  the 
question  of  caste  and  caste  practices  in  the  native  Church.^ 
His  position  as  one  ignorant  and  inquiring  he  thus  stated,  at 
the  same  time,  to  Schreyvogel,  one  of  the  Danish  missionaries 
at  Tranquebar,  which  he  had  not  been  able  to  visit : — 

"  In  order  to  gain  more  light  on  the  subject,  a  select  Com- 
mittee of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  has  been, 
at  my  desire,  appointed.  In  the  meantime,  I  am  most  anxious  to 
learn  from  every  t|uarter,  especially  from  a  Christian  minister  of  your 
experience  and  high  character,  the  real  truth  of  the  case.  God 
forbid  that  we  should  encourage  or  suffer  any  of  our  converts  to 
go  on  in  practices  either  anti-Christian  or  immoral;  but  (I  will 
speak  plainly  with  you  as  one  brother  in  Christ  should  with 
another)  I  have  also  some  fears  that  recent  missionaries  have  been 
more  scrupulous  in  these  matters  than  need  requires,  and  than 
was  thought  fit  by  Schwartz  and  his  companions.  God  forbid  that 
we  should  wink  at  sin  !  But  God  forbid,  also,  that  we  should 
make  the  narrow  gate  of  life  narrower  than  Christ  has  made  it, 
or  deal  less  favourably  with  the  prejudices  of  this  people  than  St. 
Paul  and  the  primitive  Church  dealt  with  the  almost  similar  pre- 
judices of  the  Jewish  converts  ! 

"  It  has  occurred  to  me  that  if  either  you  or  Dr.  Ciemmerer 
(to  whom  pray  offer  my  best  wishes  and  respects)  could  find  time 


^  See  p.  444,  vol.  iii.,  of  i82q  edition  of  Yiithcx  i  J ournal  and  Correspondence. 


3i6 


BISHOP  HEBER 


on  Easter  Monday  to  come  over  to  meet  me  at  Tanjor,  my  doubts 
might  be  the  better  cleared  one  way  or  the  other,  and  other 
matters  might  be  discussed  in  a  few  words,  of  much  advantage  to 
the  cause  of  missions  in  this  country. — I  remain,  reverend  and 
dear  sir,  your  faithful  and  obedient  servant, 

"  Reginald  Calcutta." 

After  dealing  in  this  tentative  spirit  with  the  caste  difficulty, 
which  it  fell  to  Bishop  Wilson  afterwards  to  settle  in  a  thorough 
manner,  approved  of  by  all  save  the  Lutheran  missionaries,^ 
Heber  added  : — ■ 

"The  Protestants,  however,  are  not  the  only  people  whose 
differences  I  have  to  compose.  The  Malayalim,  or  Syro-Jacobite 
Churches  in  Travancore,  are  also  in  a  flame,  and  I  am,  as  it 
appears,  to  be  their  umpire. 

"  The  way  in  \\  hich  I  propose  to  do  it  is  by  assembling  a  general 
synod  of  their  clergy,  in  which  the  claims  of  the  rival  metropolitans 
and  the  customs  of  their  Church  shall  be  openly  discussed,  and 
the  votes  given  by  ballot.-     Vexatious  and  unfortunate  as  the 


'  The  late  accomplished  Director  of  the  Berlin  Mission  in  India,  Dr.  Grunde- 
mann,  after  thirty  years'  administration  of  the  India  Mission,  and  five  months' 
study  of  the  Mission  on  the  spot  in  1890-1891,  thus  formulated  the  extreme 
Lutheran  view  as  to  the  method  of  Christian  Missions  :  "  Missionary  practice 
should  be  more  influenced  by  the  object  of  missionary  effort — the  nations. 
The  gathurinp;  together  of  congregations  which  detaches  Christians  from  their 
connection  with  the  national  life,  and  places  them  in  opposition  to  it.  should 
be  looked  on  .as  a  hindrance  to  the  chief  problem  of  missions — the  Christian- 
isation  of  the  nations."  It  follows  that  caste  should  be  maintained  in  the 
native  church,  as  it  has  al\va_\s  been  maintained  by  the  Lutheran,  lest  the 
nominal  adherents,  who  can  hardly  be  called  converts,  should  be  denationalised. 
See  the  Thcologischc  iiiid  Lileratuyzeitung  for  September  1894.  See  also 
Christianity  and  Caste,  by  the  Rev.  Arthur  ^Largoschis,  S.P.G.  (Calcutta. 
1893),  for  a  statement  of  the  present  attitude  of  the  Tinnevelli  Christians  to 
caste,  a  list  of  Heber's  "Articles  of  Inquiry,  "  and  Bishop  Caldwell's  opinion. 

-  The  policy  of  Heber  towards  the  ancient  Nestorian  Church  on  the 
Malabar  coast  of  India  has  been  carried  out  by  the  Church  Missionary  and 
London  Societies,  and  by  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  with  the  best  results. 
The  Rev.  W.  J.  Richards  writes  in  the  C.  M.  Intelligencer  for  March  1895  :— 

"The  missionaries,  under  the  guidance,  first  of  Bishop  Speechly,  and, 
since  i8go,  of  Bishop  Hodges,  have  imposed  upon  themselves — certainly  for 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century — the  self-denying  ordinance  to  receive  no  SjTians 
into  our  Church,  and  this  has  had  the  effect  of  saturating  the  SjTian  Church 
with  spiritual  '  blood  which  is  the  life. '  The  Cottayam  College  for  an  English 
education,  and  the  Divinity  Institution,  have  always  had  Syrian  youths,  the 
former  in  large  numbers,  under  the  influence  of  the  Bible  and  spiritual 


MADRAS 


317 


occasion  of  such  an  assemljly  will  be,  it  will  be  to  myself  extremely 
interesting  and  curious,  since  by  no  other  means  could  I  have 
hoped  to  become  so  intimately  accjuainted  with  this  most  ancient  and 
interesting  Church,  which,  corrupt  as  it  is  in  doctrine  and  plunged 
in  lamentable  ignorance,  appears  to  preserve  a  closer  resemblance 
in  its  forms  and  circumstances  of  society,  than  any  other  now  in 
existence,  to  the  Christian  world  in  the  third  and  fourth  century 
after  our  Saviour.  Meantime  I  am  visiting  the  principal  civil  and 
military  stations,  by  nearly  the  same  course  which  Bishop  Middle- 
ton  followed  in  the  year  18  16,  hoping  to  reach  Travancore  early 
in  May,  and  to  return  to  Madras  by  the  tract  which  he  did  not 
visit,  of  Mysore,  Bangalore,  and  Arcot.  The  country,  as  far  as  I 
have  yet  advanced,  is  (though  not  generally  fertile,  and  almost 
universally  flat)  as  beautiful  as  palms,  and  spreading  trees,  and 
diligent  cultivation  can  make  it,  and  the  ancient  Hindoo  temples, 
though  inferior  in  taste  to  the  magnificent  Musalman  buildings  of 
which  I  sent  you  a  description  from  the  north-west  of  India,  are, 
in  size,  picturesque  efYect,  and  richness  of  carving,  far  above  any- 
thing which  I  had  expected  to  meet  with.  .  .  . 

"  Indeed  I  do  not  eat  the  bread  of  idleness  in  this  country. 
Since  my  arival  at  Madras,  little  more  than  three  weeks  ago,  I 
have  preached  eleven  times  (including  my  visitation  charge),  have 
held  four  public  and  one  private  confirmation,  visited  five  schools, 
attended  one  public  meeting,  travelled  sixty  miles  in  a  palancjuin, 
and  one  hundred  and  forty  on  horseback,  besides  a  pretty  \  olumin- 
ous  correspondence  with  Government,  different  missionaries  and 

religion  ;  and  when  Syrians  have  gone  to  the  Christian  College,  Madras, 
under  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  they  have  returned  more  enlightened  to 
illuminate  their  brethren  in  easy-going  Malayala.  Think,  too,  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  Bible  amongst  a  people  who,  whether  reformers  or  reactionaries, 
have  not  been  forbidden  by  their  Bishops,  but  encouraged,  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures in  their  own  tongue.  During  the  year  1893,  five  colporteurs  sold  in 
the  Syrian  parts  of  Travancore  and  Cochin  636  Bibles  and  Testaments, 
besides  913  sold  in  Cottayam  depot  alone,  and  this  among  a  population  of 
but  three  millions  ;  whereas  forty-one  colporteurs  sold  among  the  fifty  millions 
of  the  Madras  Presidency  but  705  copies  in  the  Tamil,  Telugu,  and  other 
languages.  I  do  not  here  speak  of  '  portions.'  Our  Nonconforming  brethren 
of  the  L.  M.S.  have  also  in  their  own  way  contributed  sometlu'ng  to  the  wave 
of  Reformation  in  the  Syrian  Church. 

"When,  then,  I  sec  this  interesting  population  of  non-Roman  Christians 
so  open  to  the  Word  of  God,  when  I  consider  their  large  numbers  (including 
the  Nasranis  of  British  Malabar,  who  were  over  14,000  by  the  census  of 
1871),  amounting  in  all  to  350,000  baptized  people,  I  feel  thankful  to  be 
a  C. M.S.  ruissionary  and  to  belong  to  Travancore.  His  Grace  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  cheered  the  hearts  of  the  Reformers  in  1893  by  a  letter 
of  sympathy  to  their  new  Metran  or  Metropolitan,  Mar  Titus  Thoma." 


3i8 


BISHOP  HEBER 


chaplains,  and  my  Syrian  brother  Mar  Athanasius ;  and  the 
thermometer  this  day  stands  at  ninety-eight  in  the  shade.  How- 
ever, I  continue,  thank  God,  on  the  whole,  to  enjoy  as  good  health 
as  I  ever  did  in  England.  Busy  as  I  am,  my  business  is  mostly 
of  a  kind  which  I  like,  and  which  accords  with  my  previous  studies. 
The  country,  the  objects,  and  the  people  round  me  are  all  of  a 
kind  to  stimulate  and  repay  curiosity  more  than  most  others  in 
the  world  ;  and  though  there  are,  alas  !  many  moments  in  the 
day  (more  particularly  now  that  I  am  separated  from  my  wife  and 
children)  in  which  I  feel  my  exile  painfully,  I  should  be  very 
ungrateful  indeed  if  I  did  not  own  myself  happy.  Heaven  grant 
that  I  may  not  be  useless  !  When  at  Calcutta  you  have  added 
much  to  my  comfort  by  sending  Grey  there,  who,  I  rejoice  to  say, 
is  as  popular  as  he  deserves  to  be.  It  happens  now,  remarkably, 
that  all  the  three  Chief  Justices  were  my  contemporaries  at  Oxford, 
and  that  I  have  always  been  on  terms  of  friendly  intercourse  with 
all,  though  Grey  was  the  only  one  with  whom  I  was  intimate.  .  .  . 

"Lord  Combermere,  during  his  stay  in  Calcutta,  was  a  great 
accession  to  our  circle,  and  I  really  believe  you  could  have  found 
no  person  better  suited  to  play  the  very  difficult  and  important 
task  which  was  placed  in  his  hands,  from  his  good  sense,  his 
readiness  in  despatch  of  business,  and  his  accessibility,  which  had 
gone  far  to  gain  him  the  good-will  of  the  Company's  army,  even 
before  his  success  at  Bhurtpoor.  ...  He  appears  at  present  to 
enjoy  a  higher  reputation  than  any  Commander-in-Chief  since  Lord 
Cornwallis,  or  any  officer  who  has  appeared  in  India,  except  Sir 
A.  Wellesley. 

In  another  letter  to  Wynn  at  this  time  Heber  hit  the  political 
danger  and  economic  wrong  which  lie  at  the  root  of  our 
increasing  assessments  of  the  land  tax  every  generation,  and 
which  the  financial  strain  caused  by  the  depreciated  rupee  has 
again  led  the  Government  of  India  to  create  in  the  Panjab  and 
elsewhere. 

"  There  is  one  point  which,  the  more  I  have  seen  of  India, 
since  I  left  Bengal  for  the  first  time,  has  more  and  more  impressed 
itself  on  my  mind.  Neither  native  nor  European  agriculturist,  I 
think,  can  thrive  at  the  present  rate  of  taxation.  Half  the  gross 
produce  of  the  soil  is  demanded  by  Government,  and  this,  which 
is  nearly  the  average  rate  wherever  there  is  not  a  permanent 
settlement,  is  sadly  too  much  to  leave  an  adequate  provision  for 
the  peasant,  even  with  the  usual  frugal  habits  of  Indians,  and  the 


MADRAS 


3'9 


very  inartificial  and  cheap  manner  in  wliich  they  cultivate  the  land. 
Still  more  is  it  an  effectual  bar  to  everything  like  improvement  ; 
it  keeps  the  people,  e\'cn  in  favourable  years,  in  a  state  of  abject 
penury ;  and  when  the  crop  fails,  in  even  a  slight  degree,  it 
involves  a  necessity  on  the  part  of  Government  of  enormous  out- 
lays, in  the  way  of  remission  and  distribution,  which,  after  all,  do 
not  prevent  men,  women,  and  children  dying  in  the  streets  by 
droves,  and  the  roads  being  strewed  with  carcasses.  In  Bengal, 
where,  independent  of  its  exuberant  fertility,  there  is  a  permanent 
assessment,  famine  is  unknown.  ...  I  met  with  very  few  public 
men  who  will  not,  in  confidence,  own  their  belief  that  the  people 
arc  o\ertaxed,  and  that  the  country  is  in  a  gradual  state  of 
impoverishment.  The  Collectors  do  not  like  to  make  this  avowal 
officially.  Indeed,  now  and  then,  a  very  able  Collector  succeeds 
in  lowering  the  rate  to  the  people,  while,  by  diligence,  he  increases 
it  to  the  State.  But,  in  general,  all  gloomy  pictures  are  avoided 
by  them  as  reflecting  on  themselves,  and  drawing  on  them  censure 
from  the  secretaries  at  Madras  or  Calcutta  ;  while  these,  in  their 
turn,  plead  the  earnestness  with  which  the  Directors  at  home  press 
for  more  money. 

"  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  draw  less  money 
from  the  peasants,  and  to  spend  more  of  what  is  drawn  within  the 
countiy,  to  open  some  door  to  Indian  industry  in  Europe,  and  to 
admit  the  natives  of  India  to  some  greater  share  in  the  magistracy 
of  their  own  people,  to  make  this  empire  as  durable  as  it  would 
be  happy.  But  as  things  now  go  on,  though  I  do  not  detract  any 
part  of  the  ])raise  which  I  have  on  other  occasions  bestowed  on 
the  general  conduct  of  the  Company's  servants,  their  modesty, 
their  diligence,  and  integritj',  I  do  not  think  the  present  empire 
can  be  durable.  I  have  sometimes  wished  that  its  immediate 
management  were  transferred  to  the  Crown.  But  what  I  saw  in 
Ceylon  makes  me  think  this  a  doubtful  remedy." 

Passing  into  the  district  of  Tanjor,  well  watered  by  the 
Kavari,  Heber  found  himself  in  the  heart  of  the  earliest 
Reformed  missions,  second  only  to  those  of  Tinnevelli.  When 
halting  in  the  dak  bungalow  of  Mayaveram,  on  the  river  bank, 
and  reading  his  Greek  Testament,  the  Bishop  was  visited  by  a 
Lutheran  agent  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  the  head  of 
thirty  schools,  with  "John  Devasagayam,  one  of  the  best 
catechists  in  the  service  of  any  mission."  Again  writes  Mr. 
Robinson  : — 


320 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  We  expected  to  have  passed  Good  Friday  alone  in  our  tents 
but  were  agreeably  surprised  on  arriving  at  Combaconum  to  find 
it  the  residence  of  a  sub-collector  ;  and,  though  the  Bishop  was 
expected  to  pass  through  in  the  night,  yet  the  necessary'  prepara- 
tions were  soon  made  for  divine  service,  and  he  had  a  congregation 
of  twenty  or  thirty  persons,  among  whom  were  several  native 
Christians  who  understood  English.  Mr.  Mead,  a  Dissenting 
minister  in  connection  with  the  London  Missionary  Society,  very 
kindly  sent  the  desk  from  his  own  chapel  for  the  Bishop's  use,  and 
attended  the  service  himself" 

"25//^  March. 

"  We  went  to  bed  in  our  palanquins,  which  the  bearers  took 
up  at  midnight  and  brought  us  to  Tanjor  (twenty-two  miles)  at 
daybreak,  where  we  met  with  the  kindest  welcome  from  the 
Resident,  Captain  Fyfe,  and  his  lady.  The  Reverend  Messrs. 
Kohlhofif  and  Sperschneider,  the  missionaries  of  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  waited  on  the  Bishop  in  the 
morning,  and  received  his  directions  for  the  service  of  to-morrow. 
The  venerable  appearance  of  the  former  strongly  recalled  to  our 
minds  the  striking  and  well-known  expression  of  Bishop  Middleton 
when  he  parted  from  him  ten  years  before  and  received  his  blessing.i 
He  has  now  completed  nearly  half  a  century  of  Christian  labour 
in  India  ;  and  the  simplicity  of  his  manners  and  character  are 
exactly  what  you  would  expect  to  see  in  a  pupil  and  follower  of 
Schwartz. 

"After  dinner  the  Bishop  walked  over  the  premises  of  the 
Mission,  visited  Schwartz's  chapel  hallowed  by  the  grave  of  the 
apostolic  man,  and  copied  the  inscription  on  the  stone  which 
covers  it,  interesting  as  being  the  composition  of  the  Raja  himself. 

"The  chapel  is  of  the  simplest  order,  with  a  semicircular 
recess  for  the  altar  at  the  east  end  :  the  tomb  of  Schwartz  is  just 
before  the  reading-desk  in  front  of  the  altar.  Before  the  southern 
entrance  are  the  trees  under  which  the  venerable  Father  used  to 
sit  and  receive  the  reports  of  the  catechists,  and  examine  the 
children  just  before  the  daily  evening  service.  Immediately 
adjoining  the  chapel  was  Schwartz's  cottage,  on  the  site  of  which, 
but  considerably  enlarged  from  the  former  foundations,  Mr.  Sper- 
schneider has  built  a  house,  which  would  be  an  excellent  rectory 
in  England.    The  Mission  garden  is  very  large,  and  we  saw  there 


1  "  The  Bishop  (according  to  his  own  expression),  considering  Mr.  Kohlhoffs 
character,  could  not  help  feeUng  that  the  less  was  blessed  of  the  greater." 


MADRAS 


32 


many  native  Christians,  among  whom  one  was  presented  to  the 
Bishop  as  one  of  the  few  who  have  offices  under  Government  :  he 
is  a  writer  in  the  Raja's  service." 

"26//(  iManh,  Easter  Day. 
"  The  Bishop  preached  this  morning  in  the  Mission  Church  in 
the  Fort,  all  the  clergy  present  assisting  in  the  service.  His  text 
was  from  Rev.  i.  1 8  :  I  am  lie  that  liveih,  and  was  dead;  and,  behold, 
I  am  alive  for  evermore.  Many  of  the  native  Christians  who 
understood  English  were  there,  and  entreated  his  Lordship,  after 
the  service,  that  he  would  allow  them  a  copy  of  his  sermon.  He 
promised  to  make  some  alterations  in  the  style,  so  as  to  bring  it 
nearer  to  their  comprehensions,  and  have  it  translated  for  them 
into  Tamil.  I  assisted  him  in  the  administration  of  the  Sacrament 
to  thirty  communicants  of  the  English  and  fifty-seven  of  the  native 
congregation  ;  to  each  of  the  latter  we  repeated  the  words  in 
Tamil.  The  interest  of  this  service,  in  itself  most  interesting, 
was  greatly  heightened  by  the  delight  and  animation  of  the  Bishop, 
the  presence  of  so  many  missionaries  whose  labours  were  before 
us,  and  all  the  associations  of  the  place  in  which  we  were  assembled, 
built  by  the  venerable  Schwartz,  whose  monument,  erected  by  the 
affection  of  the  Raja,  adorns  the  western  end  of  the  church.  The 
group  in  white  marble,  by  Flaxman,  represents  the  good  man  on 
his  death-bed,  Gericke  standing  behind  him,  the  Raja  at  his  side, 
two  native  attendants  and  three  children  of  his  school  around 
his  bed. 

"  In  the  evening  the  Bishop  attended  a  Tamil  service  in  the 
same  church,  which  was  literally  crowded  with  the  native  Christians 
of  Tanjor  and  the  surrounding  villages.  The  Bishop  delivered 
the  blessing  in  Tamil  from  the  altar.  Mr.  Kohlhoff  assured  me 
that  his  pronunciation  was  remarkably  correct  and  distinct,  and 
the  breathless  silence  of  the  congregation  testified  their  delight 
and  surprise  at  this  affecting  recognition  of  their  churches  as  a 
part  of  his  pastoral  charge.  I  desired  one  of  the  native  priests 
to  ascertain  how  many  were  present,  and  I  found  they  exceeded 
1300.  ...  I  have  seen  no  congregation,  even  in  Europe,  by 
w  hom  the  responses  of  the  liturgy  are  more  generally  and  correctly 
made,  or  where  the  psalmody  is  more  devotional  and  correct. 
The  effect  was  more  than  electric  :  it  was  a  deep  and  thrilling 
interest,  in  which  memory,  and  hope,  and  joy  mingled  with  the 
devotion  of  the  hour,  to  hear  so  many  voices,  but  lately  rescued 
from  the  polluting  services  of  the  pagoda,  joining  in  the  pure  and 
heavenly  music  of  the  Easter  Hymn  and  the  looth  Psalm,  and 
uttering  the  loud  Amen  at  the  close  of  every  prayer.  .  .  . 
Y 


322 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"  The  Bishop's  heart  was  full ;  and  never  shall  I  forget  the  energy 
of  his  manner  and  the  heavenly  expression  of  his  countenance  when 
he  exclaimed,  as  I  assisted  him  to  take  off  his  robes,  '  Gladly  would 
I  exchange  years  of  common  life  for  one  such  day  as  this  ! '  Some 
time  after  he  had  retired  to  rest,  while  I  was  writing  in  my  bed- 
room, which  is  next  to  his,  he  came  back  to  me  to  renew  the 
subject  on  which  his  thoughts  were  intensely  fixed,  and  his  often- 
repeated  expressions  of  wonder  and  thankfulness  at  the  scenes  of 
the  past  day  were  followed  by  a  fervent  prayer  for  the  people,  for 
the  clergy,  and  for  himself." 

"  27M  March. 

"  The  Bishop  held  a  confinnation  this  morning  in  the  Fort 
church,  at  which  there  were  twelve  European  and  fifty  native 
candidates.  .  .  .  The  missionaries  and  their  families  dined  at  the 
Residency  to  meet  the  Bishop,  and  at  seven,  after  our  evening  drive, 
we  attended  a  Tamil  service  at  Schwartz's  chapel  in  the  Mission 
garden,  when  there  were  present  nearly  200  natives  and  seven 
clergymen.  He  had  received  no  pre\  ious  intimation  of  this  ser\'ice, 
but  the  manner  in  which  he  seized  on  the  opportunity  thus  un- 
expectedly offered  of  a  visitation  strictly  missionary,  was  more 
touching  and  impressive  than  any  previous  preparation  could  have 
made  it.  He  sat  in  his  chair  at  the  altar  (as  he  usually  does  in 
every  church  except  the  cathedral)  ;  and  after  the  sermon,  before 
he  dismissed  them  with  his  blessing,  he  addressed  both  mission- 
aries and  people  in  a  strain  of  earnest  and  affectionate  exhortation, 
which  no  ear  that  heard  it  can  ever  forget.  We  were  standing  on 
the  graves  of  Schwartz  and  others  of  his  fellow-labourers  who  are 
gone  to  their  rest,  and  he  alluded  beautifully  to  this  circumstance 
in  his  powerful  and  impressive  charge.  As  this  was  probably  the 
last  time  that  he  could  hope  to  meet  them  again  in  public,  he 
exhorted  them  to  fidelity  in  their  high  office,  to  increasing  diligence 
and  zeal,  to  a  more  self-denying  patience  under  privation,  and 
neglect,  and  insult,  looking  for  the  recompense  of  reward  ;  and 
lastly,  to  more  earnest  prayer  for  themselves  and  the  souls  com- 
mitted to  their  trust,  for  the  prince  under  whose  mild  and  equal 
government  they  lived,  and  for  him,  their  brother  and  fellow- 
servant.  The  address  was  short  and  very  simple,  but  no  study 
or  ornament  could  have  improved  it.  It  was  the  spontaneous 
language  of  his  own  heart,  and  appealed  at  once  to  ours." 

"2SC/i  March. 

"  The  Bishop  paid  a  visit  of  ceremony  to  the  Raja,  accompanied 
by  the  Resident,  and  attended  by  all  the  clergy.     We  were 


MADRAS 


323 


received  in  full  Durbar  in  the  great  Maratha  Hall,  where  the  Rajas 
are  enthroned.  The  scene  was  imposing,  and,  from  the  number  of 
Christian  clergymen  in  the  court  of  a  Hindoo  prince,  somewhat 
singular.  .  .  .  He  talked  much  of  'his  dear  father,'  Schwartz, 
and  three  times  told  the  Bishop  he  hoped  his  Lordship  would 
resemble  him  and  stand  in  his  room.  Perhaps  few  things  from 
the  mouth  of  an  Eastern  prince,  with  whom  compliment  to  the 
living  is  generally  exaggerated,  could  show  more  strongly  the 
sincerity  of  his  affection  for  the  friend  he  had  lost.  The  open- 
ness of  his  gratitude  and  reverence  for  the  Christian  missionary 
in  the  midst  of  his  Brahmans,  and  himself  still  constant  in  his 
own  religion,  is  admirable  ;  and  if  on  some  occasions  it  be  a  little 
too  prominent,  who  would  not  pardon  and  even  love  a  fault  which 
is  but  the  excess  of  a  virtue  ?  He  was  his  pupil  from  the  time  he 
was  twelve  years  old  till  he  was  twenty-four,  and  succeeded  to 
the  Musnud  the  year  after  Schwartz  died.  'And  John  Kohlhoff,' 
said  he,  '  is  a  good  man — a  very  good  man  ;  we  are  old  school- 
fellows.' The  Bishop  thanked  him  for  his  uniform  kindness  to 
his  poor  Christian  subjects  and  their  teachers.  He  said  it  was 
but  his  duty.  .  .  .  The  Bishop  said,  as  we  returned  from  the 
palace,  '  I  have  seen  many  crowned  heads,  but  not  one  whose 
deportment  was  more  princely.' 

"  The  rest  of  the  morning  was  spent  in  various  local  arrange- 
ments and  communications  with  the  missionaries  ;  and  hearing 
with  surprise  that  no  distinct  petition  had  hitherto  been  offered, 
according  to  the  apostolic  injunction,  in  their  public  services  for 
the  prince  under  whose  government  they  lived,  he  composed  the 
prayer  of  which  I  send  you  a  copy,  and  which  he  desired  might 
be  immediately  translated  into  Tamil,  and  henceforth  used  in  all 
the  churches  of  the  province. 

"  '  O  Lord  God  Almighty,  giver  of  all  good  things,  we  beseech 
Thee  to  receive  into  Thy  bountiful  protection  Thy  servant  his 
Highness  the  Maharaja  Sarabojee,  his  family  and  descendants. 
Remember  him,  O  Lord,  for  good,  for  the  kindness  which  he 
hath  shown  to  Thy  Church.  Grant  him  in  health  and  wealth  long 
to  live  ;  preserve  him  from  all  evil  and  danger  ;  grant  that  his 
son  and  his  son's  son  may  inherit  honour,  peace,  and  happiness  ; 
and  grant,  above  all,  both  to  him  and  to  them,  that  peace  which 
this  world  cannot  give — a  knowledge  of  Thy  truth  here,  and  ever- 
lasting happiness  hereafter,  through  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Saviour.  Amen.'" 


Twenty-three  years  afterwards.  Dr.  Alexander  Duff,  at  the 


324 


BISHOP  HEBER 


same  age,  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Heber  to  Tanjor  and 
Trichinopoly,  and  with  the  same  loving  care  traced  the  work 
of  Schwartz.^  In  1864  Bishop  Cotton  made  his  visitation  of 
Madras  as  Metropolitan,  when  he  inspected  the  Tinnevelli 
and  Travancore  Missions,^  with  results  best  described  in  his 
remarkable  article  on  the  subject  in  the  Calcutta  Review? 

When  at  Tanjor  Bishop  Heber  dictated  a  scheme  for  the 
reorganisation  of  all  the  missions  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
South  India,  on  the  lines  of  village  evangelisation  by  native 
ministers,  each  with  a  decent  place  of  worship  to  be  built  for 
him  when  necessary,  but  thereafter  maintained  by  the  people. 
At  Ramnad,  and  thence  along  the  coast  to  Cape  Comorin,  he 
planned  a  mission  to  the  descendants  of  Xavier's  converts,* 
some  of  whom  had  already  besought  him  to  care  for  them. 
As  they  were  in  1826  they  are  thus  described : — 

"  The  coast  is  inhabited  by  the  tribe  of  Paravas,  the  only  men 
employed  in  the  pearl  fishery,  who  are  all  Roman  Catholics. 
They  amount  to  about  10,000  souls.  In  temporal  matters  they 
are  subject  to  the  Jadetallivan,  or  head  man,  who  resides  at 
Tuticorin,  in  which  place  alone  there  are  nearly  5000.  In 
spiritual  affairs  they  are  governed,  but  unfortunately  not  instructed, 
by  one  priest  sent  occasionally  from  Goa,  who  has  frequent 
quarrels  with  the  Jadetallivan,  and  is  dreaded  by  the  people  for 
his  extortion.  The  character  of  these  people  is  very  favourably 
described  by  those  who  have  known  them  best,  and  a  better 
opening  could  hardly  be  desired  for  a  prudent  and  zealous 
missionary.  Surely,  if  these  circumstances  were  known  in 
England,  some  one  might  be  found  willing  to  undertake  so  inter- 
esting and  extensive  a  charge.  If  the  wants  of  that  district  alone 
could  be  told  in  our  Universities,  is  it  possible  they  could  be  told 
in  vain  ? 

"  We  leave  Tanjor  with  the  sincerest  regret,  and  with  the 
strongest  interest  in  a  spot  so  favoured  and  so  full  of  promise. 


1  The  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D.,  vol.  ii.  chap.  xix. 
-  Memoir  of  George  Edward  Lynch  Cotton,  D.D.,  chap.  xiv. 
Vol.  xxxix. 

See  Bishop  Caldwell's  Political  and  General  History  of  the  District  of 
Tinnevelly  from  the  earliest  period  to  its  cession  to  the  English  Government 
in  A.u.  1801.  Printed  at  the  Government  Press,  Madras,  1881  ;  also  The 
Madura  Country,  a  Manual  compiled  by  order  of  the  Madras  Government, 
by  J.  H.  Nelson,  M.A.,  Madras,  1868. 


MADRAS 


325 


The  Bishop  has  more  than  once  observed  to  me  that  instead  of 
the  usual  danger  of  exaggerated  reports,  and  the  expression  of  too 
sanguine  hopes,  the  fault  here  was  that  enough  had  not  been  said, 
and  repeats  his  conviction  that  the  strength  of  the  Christian 
cause  in  India  is  in  these  Missions,  and  that  it  will  be  a  grievous 
and  heavy  sin  if  England  and  the  agents  of  its  bounty  do  not 
nourish  and  protect  the  churches  here  founded.  He  has  seen 
the  other  parts  of  India  and  Ceylon,  and  he  has  rejoiced  in  the 
prospects  opened  of  the  extension  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  many 
distant  places,  and  by  many  different  instruments  ;  but  he  has 
seen  nothing  like  the  Missions  of  the  South,  for  these  are  the 
fields  most  ripe  for  the  harvest." 

When  the  carriage  for  Trichinopoly  was  at  the  door  Heber 
excused  himself  for  a  moment,  saying  he  must  shake  hands 
with  Dr.  Hyne,  who  was  ill.  "A  few  minutes  after,"  his 
chaplain  writes,  "going  upstairs  for  a  book  which  I  had  for- 
gotten, and  passing  by  Dr.  Hyne's  open  door,  I  saw  the  dear 
Bishop  kneeling  by  his  bedside,  and  his  hands  raised  in  prayer. 
You  will  not  wonder  that  I  should  love  this  man,  seeing  him 
as  I  see  him,  fervent  in  secret  and  individual  devotion,  and  at 
one  hour  the  centre  of  many  labours,  the  apostle  of  many 
nations,  at  another  snatching  the  last  moment  to  kneel  by  the 
bed  of  a  sick  and  dying  friend,  who  but  a  fortnight  ago  was 
a  perfect  stranger  to  him." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


TRICHINOPOLY  THE   ROCK   AND  THE  BATH 

1826 

On  the  right  bank  of  the  river  Kavari,  which  is  so  named 
from  the  "turmeric"  colour  of  its  fertiHsing  current,  some 
fifty-six  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  isolated  masses 
of  crystalline  gneiss  rise  from  the  plain.  Around  one  of 
these,  certainly  before  the  days  of  Ptolemy,  the  geographer, 
an  early  Uravidian  dynasty  built  a  fort,  enclosing  the  Rock 
of  the  Three-headed  Giant,  and  naming  the  stronghold  accord- 
ingly Trichinopoly.  The  summit  is  273  feet  above  the 
street  of  the  modern  city. 

All  through  the  nineteen  Christian  centuries  Trichinopoly 
has  been  the  centre  of  Dravidic  Brahmanism.  Two  miles 
from  the  famous  Rock,  on  the  island  of  Srirangam,  or 
"  heavenly  pleasure,"  the  largest  and  most  debased  idol 
temple  in  the  world,  the  pagoda  of  Vishnu,  covers  four 
square  miles.  Its  imposing  gateways,  its  gigantic  towers, 
and  its  cloistered  courts,  gradually  diminishing  in  size,  lead 
the  worshipper  to  the  obscure  penetralia.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  city  is  the  still  viler  shrine  of  Siva  as  Jambuk- 
eshwar,  the  "  lord  of  India."  Three  events  redeem  the  Rock 
of  Trichinopoly  from  such  associations,  now  that  the  Christian 
flag  of  Great  Britain  waves  from  its  summit  over  the  shrines 
of  Ganesa,  Siva,  and  Vishnu.  Here  Clive  commanded, 
marching  hence  on  his  famous  expedition  to  Arcot,  to  draw 
off  its  besiegers.  Here  Schwartz,  coming  from  Tranquebar, 
founded  the  first  Christian  mission  and  lived  for  sixteen  years 


TRICHINOFOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  327 


before  settling  at  Tanjor.  Here  Heber,  in  the  midst  of 
labours  for  the  people  too  intense,  was  removed  by  a  sudden 
death,  but  not  before  he  had  so  revived  the  work  of  Schwartz 
that  the  largest  of  all  the  Anglican  missionary  institutions  in 
India  is  now  the  Heber  Memorial  School, '  which  has  grown 
into  the  Trichinopoly  College,^  ever  becoming  more  successful 
as  the  conqueror  of  the  pantheistic  abomination  of  desolation 
in  the  dark  shrines  of  Srirangam  and  Jambukeshwar. 

Driving  from  Tanjor,  Bishop  Heber,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Robinson,  and  Mr.  Schreyvogel,  whom  he  desired  to  station  at 
Trichinopoly,  reached  his  camp  at  midnight.  On  Saturday, 
1st  April,  before  eight  in  the  morning,  the  Bishop  was  met 
by  the  principal  residents  and  conducted  to  the  house  of  Mr. 
Bird,  circuit  judge.  The  party  had  not  so  rested  as  to  recover 
from  the  fatigue  of  the  previous  days  and  weeks,  and  the  heat 
was  intense.  Heber  lost  not  an  hour  in  receiving  the  reports 
of  the  chaplain,  and  of  Mr.  Kohlhoff  as  to  the  Mission. 
Trichinopoly  was  then  the  headquarters  of  the  southern 
military  division,  and  its  white  garrison  consisted  of  H.M. 
48th  Regiment,  of  detachments  of  artillery,  and  of  the  Sepoy 

1  ' '  The  College  represents  the  development  of  the  Native  School  founded  by 
the  great  missionary,  C.  F.  Schwartz,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
which,  after  having  been  located  in  vaiious  other  homes,  was  for  a  long  time 
conducted  in  the  small  Heber  Memorial  School  at  Sengkulam,  but  was 
brought  within  the  Fort  about  tliirty  years  ago,  at  the  earnest  request,  nut  of 
any  one  connected  with  the  Mission,  but  of  the  Brahman  students  from 
Srirangam,  the  stronghold  whicli  the  College  is  bombarding.  .  .  .  We  enter 
the  Fort  by  a  remnant  of  the  old  fortification,  the  main-guard  gate,  associated 
with  those  English  heroes  who,  on  the  night  of  27th  November  1753,  during 
the  Anglo  -  French  Carnatic  war,  repulsed  a  surprise  attack  of  the  French 
from  Srirangam.  Through  this  historic  gate  we  enter,  and  at  once  bursts  into 
view  the  Rock  Fort,  with  a  great  temple  to  Siva  on  its  sides,  and  a  small 
shrine  to  Gan^sa  on  the  summit,  over  which  waves  the  Union  Jack — a  sign 
that  all  the  religions  of  India,  in  spite  of  their  mutual  jealousy,  repose  peace- 
fully under  the  British  flag."  The  college  now  occupies  "the  highest  position 
among  the  Anglican  missionary  institutions  in  our  country.  From  within 
these  walls  Christian  influence  radiates  in  all  directions  ;  while  its  proximity 
to  the  greatest  stronghold  of  heathenism  in  Southern  India,  and  its  situation 
in  the  second  town  of  the  Presidency,  the  seat  of  many  head  ofifices  of  Govern- 
ment, and  the  junction  of  the  chief  hues  of  the  South  Indian  Railway,  all 
combine  to  make  the  College  a  strong  Christian  outpost"  worthy  of  Reginald 
Heber. — Rev.  Jacob  Gnanaolivit,  B.  A.,  in  The  Mission  Field  for  November 
1894. 

-  Fitly  associated  with  what  should  henceforth  be  officially  called  Heber's 
College  is  Bishop  Caldwell's  Hostel,  transferred  from  Tuticorin  since  the 
closing  of  the  Caldwell  College  there. 


328 


BISHOP  HEBER 


officers,  while  there  was  a  full  establishment  of  civil  servants 
and  their  clerks.  The  Mission,  which  had  suffered  since  the 
death  of  Pohle,  Schwartz's  colleague,  still  consisted  of  nearly 
500  Native  Christians,  under  the  care  of  a  catechist,  and  of 
Schwartz's  schools,  Tamil  and  English.  The  latter  was  sup- 
ported from  the  Vestry  Fund.  For  the  whole  work  in  the 
Tamil  vernacular,  including  the  villages  in,  the  suburbs,  the 
sum  available  was  only  thirty  rupees  a  month.  With  even 
more  than  his  usual  care — for  his  heart  was  enlarged  by  the 
needs  and  the  prospects  of  the  South  India  missions,  which 
have  since  developed  with  wonderful  rapidity  and  thorough- 
ness— Heber  spent  the  hot  and  unresting  day  in  mastering  all 
the  facts  and  planning  the  necessary  reforms  with  a  generous 
hope.  As  if  that  were  not  enough,  he  must  have  spent  hours 
at  his  desk,  before  retiring,  in  the  preparation  of  his  sermon 
for  the  morrow,  and  his  confirmation  addresses  in  English  and 
Tamil,  and  in  writing  several  letters,  one  of  them  very  long. 
To  Captain  Fyfe,  the  Resident  at  Tanjor,  he  wrote  a  private 
letter,  covering  an  official  communication  for  the  Maharaja. 

Private. 

"  Trichinoi'oly,  \st  April  1826. 
.  .  .  To  yourself  and  Mrs.  Fyfe,  for  the  kindness  and 
hospitality  which  you  have  shown  to  us  all,  both  in  sickness  and 
in  health,  as  well  as  the  impression  which  your  agreeable  society 
has  left  on  my  mind,  what  can  I  say  more  than  I  have  already 
said,  or  to  express  all  that  I  feel  ?  God  bless  you  both,  and 
make  you  long  happy  in  each  other  and  in  your  children  I  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  we  have  another  invalid  in  our  party,  poor 
Robinson  being  very  far  from  well  this  morning." 

"  My  dear  Sir — May  I  request  you  to  convey  to  his  high- 
ness the  Maharaja  of  Tanjor  the  expression  of  my  best  thanks 
for  the  kind  and  gratifying  attentions  with  which  his  highness  has 
honoured  myself  and  my  party  during  our  visit  to  Tanjor,  and 
the  assurance  that  I  shall,  through  life,  continue  to  recollect  with 
pleasure  my  introduction  to  the  acquaintance  of  a  prince  so  much 
distinguished  by  his  virtues  and  talents,  as  well  as  by  his  courte- 
ous and  condescending  manners,  and  the  variety  of  his  accomplish- 
ments. 

"  I  feel  much  flattered  by  the  manner  in  which  his  highness 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  329 


has  been  pleased  to  speak  of  my  offer  to  superintend  the  educa- 
tion of  the  Prince  Sewajee,  in  the  event  of  his  being  wiUing  to 
give  me  the  pleasure  of  his  company  in  my  present  tour,  and 
afterwards  to  accompany  me  to  Calcutta.  I  regret  extremely, 
though  I  fully  feel  and  appreciate  the  causes  which  render  this 
arrangement  at  present  impossible.  But  I  beg  you,  at  the  same 
time,  to  state  to  his  highness  that,  should  the  improved  health  of 
the  prince,  or  a  better  season  of  the  year,  make  her  highness  the 
Ranee  less  reluctant  to  part  with  him  for  a  time,  it  would  be  my 
study  to  make  his  stay  in  Calcutta  as  agreeable  and  useful  to  him 
as  possible,  both  by  directing  his  studies,  and  introducing  him  to 
the  most  distinguished  society  of  the  place  ;  and  that  in  health, 
and  every  other  respect,  I  would  take  the  same  care  of  him 
as  I  should,  under  similar  circumstances,  of  a  son  of  my  own 
sovereign. 

"  I  beg  you,  at  the  same  time,  to  offer  my  best  compliments 
and  good  wishes  to  his  highness  and  Prince  Sewajee. — Beheve 
me,  dear  sir,  your  obliged  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  Reginald  Calcutta." 

Heber's  last  letter  to  one  of  his  attached  friends  was 
written  to  ^\'ilmot  Horton,  the  Under  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Colonies.  After  sketching  the  character  and  pursuits  of 
Maharaja  Serfojee  ^  and  the  prospects  of  his  son  Sewajee,  whom 
he  would  fain  have  rescued  from  being  doomed  all  his  life  ^ 
to  doing  nothing  but  "  chew  betel,  sit  in  the  zanana,  and 
pursue  the  other  amusements  of  the  common  race  of  Hindoo 
princes,"  Heber  leaves  us  this  portrait  of  Schwartz. 

"  TRICHINOrOLY,  \st  April  iZ^i). 

"  My  dear  Wilmot — .  .  .  Of  Schwartz  and  his  fifty  years' 
labour  among  the  heathens,  the  extraordinary  influence  and 
popularity  which  he  acquired,  both  with  Musalmans,  Hindoos, 
and  contending  European  governments,  I  need  give  you  no  account, 
except  that  my  idea  of  him  has  been  raised  since  I  came  into  the 
south  of  India.  I  used  to  suspect  that,  with  many  admirable 
qualities,  there  was  too  great  a  mixture  of  intrigue  in  his  character, 
that  he  was  too  much  of  a  political  prophet,  and  that  the  venera- 


'  Serfojee  died  in  1832,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sewajee,  on  whose  death,  in 
1855,  without  male  heirs,  direct  or  collateral,  the  titular  dignity  became 
extinct. 

-  Compare  with  Alexander  Duff's  in  liis  Life,  vol.  ii.  chap.  xix. 


330 


BISHOP  HEBER 


tion  which  the  heathen  paid,  and  still  pay  him,  and  which  indeed 
almost  regards  him  as  a  superior  being,  putting  crowns  and 
burning  lights  before  his  statue,  was  purchased  by  some  unwarrant- 
able compromise  with  their  prejudices.  I  find  I  was  quite  mis- 
taken. He  was  really  one  of  the  most  active  and  fearless,  as  he 
was  one  of  the  most  successful  missionaries  who  have  appeared 
since  the  Apostles.  To  say  that  he  was  disinterested  in  regard  to 
money  is  nothing  ;  he  was  perfectly  careless  of  power,  and  re- 
nown never  seemed  to  affect  him,  even  so  far  as  to  induce  even 
an  outward  show  of  humility.  His  temper  was  perfectly  simple, 
open,  and  cheerful,  and  in  his  political  negotiations  (employments 
which  he  never  sought  for,  but  which  fell  in  his  way)  he  never 
pretended  to  impartiality,  but  acted  as  the  avowed,  though 
certainly  the  successful  and  judicious  agent  of  the  orphan  prince 
entrusted  to  his  care,  and  from  attempting  whose  conversion  to 
Christianity  he  seems  to  have  abstained  from  a  feeling  of  honour. 
His  other  converts  were  between  6000  and  7000,  besides  those 
which  his  predecessors  and  companions  in  the  cause  had  brought 
over. 

"The  number  is  gradually  increasing,  and  there  are  now  in 
the  south  of  India  about  200  Protestant  congregations,  the 
numbers  of  which  have  been  sometimes  vaguely  stated  at  40,000. 
I  doubt  whether  they  reach  i  5,000,  but  even  this,  all  things  con- 
sidered, is  a  great  number.  The  Roman  Catholics  are  consider- 
ably more  numerous,  but  belong  to  a  lower  caste  of  Indians,  for 
even  these  Christians  retain  many  prejudices  of  caste,  and  in 
point  of  knowledge  and  morality  are  said  to  be  extremely  inferior. 
This  inferiority,  as  injuring  the  general  character  of  the  religion, 
is  alleged  to  have  occasioned  the  very  unfavourable  eye  with 
which  all  native  Christians  have  been  regarded  in  the  Madras 
Government.  If  they  have  not  actually  been  persecuted,  they 
have  been  '  disqualified,'  iotidem  verbis,  from  holding  any  place 
or  appointment,  whether  civil  or  military,  under  the  Company's 
Government  ;  and  that  in  districts  where,  while  the  native  princes 
remained  in  power.  Christians  were  employed  without  scruple. 
Nor  is  this  the  worst — many  peasants  have  been  beaten  by 
authority  of  the  English  magistrates  for  refusing,  on  a  religious 
account,  to  assist  in  drawing  the  chariots  of  the  idols  on  festival 
days  ;  and  it  is  only  the  present  Collector  of  Tanjor  who  has 
withheld  the  assistance  of  the  secular  arm  from  the  Brahmans  on 
these  occasions.  The  consequence  is  that  the  Brahmans,  being 
limited  to  voluntary  votaries,  have  now  often  very  hard  work  to 
speed  the  ponderous  wheels  of  Kali  and  Siva  through  the  deep 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  331 


lanes  of  this  fertile  country.  This  is,  however,  still  the  most 
favoured  land  of  Brahmanism,  and  the  temples  are  larger  and 
more  beautiful  than  any  which  I  have  seen  in  Northern  India  ; 
they  are  also  decidedly  older,  but  as  to  their  very  remote  age  I 
am  still  incredulous. 

"  You  will  have  heard,  perhaps,  from  your  brother  that  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  meeting  him  in  Ceylon.  That  country  might  be 
one  of  the  happiest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  loveliest  spots  in  the 
universe,  if  some  of  the  old  Dutch  laws  were  done  away,  among 
which,  in  my  judgment,  the  chief  are  the  monopoly  of  cinnamon, 
and  the  compulsory  labour  of  the  peasants  on  the  high  roads,  and 
in  other  species  of  corve'es.  The  Kandian  provinces,  where 
neither  of  these  exist,  seemed  to  me  the  most  prosperous  parts  of 
the  country.  .  .  . 

"  You  will  perceive,  from  the  date  and  tenor  of  my  letter,  that 
I  am  again  on  my  visitation  tour  ;  again,  too,  I  am  grieved  to 
say,  separated  from  my  family.  Circumstances  had  detained  me 
so  late  at  Calcutta  that  the  cool  season  was  cjuite  spent,  and  it 
would  have  been  tempting  Heaven  to  take  them  with  me  in  such  a 
journey  at  this  time  of  the  year.  It  is,  indeed,  intensely  hot — often 
from  98°  to  100°  in  the  shade  ;  but  I  could  not  defer  it  to  another 
year,  and  I  thank  God,  continue  quite  well,  though  some  of  my 
companions  have  suffered,  and  I  have  been  compelled  to  leave 
my  surgeon  behind  sick  at  Tanjor.i  My  chaplain  I  feared 
yesterday  must  have  remained  there  also,  but  he  has  now 
rallied.  I  am  compelled  to  pass  on  in  order  to  get  to  Travancore, 
where  I  have  much  curious  discussion  before  me  with  the  Syrian 
Christians  before  the  monsoon  renders  that  country  impassable. 
This  I  hope  to  accomplish  ;  but  meantime  the  hot  winds  are 
growing  very  oppressive,  and  must  be  much  worse  than  they  are 
before  I  reach  Quilon.  The  hospitality,  however,  of  Europeans 
in  India  assures  me  of  house-room  at  all  the  principal  stations, 
so  that  there  are  not,  I  think,  above  200  miles  over  which  we 
must  trust  to  the  shelter  of  tents  alone.  .  .  . 

"  Ever  your  obliged  and  affectionate  friend, 

"  Reginald  Calcutta." 

Reginald  Heber's  last  letter  was  to  his  wife,  and  his  last 
written  words  were  for  justice  to  the  Native  Christians  from 
his  own  Government. 

"  Will  it  be  believed,  that  while  the  Raja  kept  his  dominions, 


'  Mr.  Hyne  died  of  an  abscess  in  the  liver  on  4th  April. 


332 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Christians  were  eligible  to  all  the  different  offices  of  State,  luhile 
now  ihcre  is  an  order  of  Government  against  their  being  admitted 
to  any  employment !  Surely  we  are  in  matters  of  religion  the 
most  lukewarm  and  cowardly  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I 
mean  to  make  this  and  some  other  things  which  I  have  seen,  a 
matter  of  formal  representation  to  all  the  three  Governments  of 
India,  and  to  the  Board  of  Control." 

Lord  William  Bentinck,  five  yeans  afterwards,  extinguished 
what  the  historian  of  British  India ^  terms  this  "disreputable 
anomaly,"  and  now  the  Hindoos  themselves  acknowledge  that, 
by  their  superior  character  and  education,  their  Christian 
countrymen  are  securing  for  themselves  the  highest  offices 
open  to  the  natives  of  India,  distancing  the  Brahmans.- 

Sunday,  2nd  April,  saw  St.  John's  Church,  in  the  Fort 
of  Trichinopoly,  crowded  by  eager  worshippers.  "  With  his 
usual  animation  and  energy,  and  without  any  appearance  of 
languor  or  incipient  disease,"  as  his  chaplain  testifies,  Heber 
preached  on  that  hot  morning  from  the  classical  passage 
I  John  V.  6-8 — T/iis  is  he  that  came  by  water  and  blood,  even 
Jesus  Christ.  Shirking  no  difficulty  in  the  text,  glancing  with 
ripe  theological  scholarship  at  the  Three  Heavenly  W  itnesses, 
Heber  devoted  the  sermon,  which  proved  to  be  his  last,  to 
enforcing  the  great  subject  of  his  ministr>' — the  evangelical 
meaning  of  the  Atonement  by  blood  and  of  Regeneration  by 
the  Spirit,  for  every  sinner,  and  of  the  new  power  and  duty  to 
live  as  the  children  of  God. 

'  By  Regulation  in  1831,  ordaining  that  there  shall  be  no  exclusion  from 
office  on  account  of  caste,  creed,  or  nation.  See  Marshman's  History  of 
India,  chap.  xxxi. 

The  Right  Hon.  H.  H.  Fowler,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India,  gave  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  1894  some  very  remarkable  statistics  showing  the  place 
which  is  being  taken  by  natives  of  India  in  the  government  of  their  countr)'. 
Thirty  years  ago,  he  said,  no  native  held  any  post  of  first  importance  ;  now, 
out  of  898  positions  in  the  higher  branches  of  the  civil  service,  they  occupy 
93  ;  there  is  one  native  judge  in  each  of  the  High  Courts  of  Justice  ;  there 
are  2000  native  magistrates  ;  and  of  the  37,350  subordinate  posts,  they  hold 
the  vast  m.njority.  By  liis  Report  of  t/ie  Public  Sa-^'ice  Commission  (Calcutta, 
1888),  1886-87,  of  which  he  was  President,  the  Hon.  Sir  C.  U.  Aitchison, 
M.A.  (Oxford),  LL.D.  (Edinburgh),  K.C.S.I.,  C.I.E.,  thus  completed  his 
life's  services  to  the  people  of  India.  The  fullest  details  and  statesmanlike 
recommendations  will  be  found  there.  Most  of  them  have  been  since  carried 
into  effect. 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  333 


"  It  is  not  enough  to  acknowledge  that  He  was  the  Son  of 
God  unless  we  confess  also  that  He  came  'by  water.'  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  He  baptized  us  to  repentance  unless  we  add 
that  He  came  with  His  own  most  precious  blood  both  to  purchase 
for  us  a  power  to  repent,  and  to  make  our  imperfect  repentance 
acceptable.  Nor,  lastly,  would  it  be  sufficient  to  acknowledge 
the  sacrifice  of  His  blood  alone  unless  we  acknowledge  that  our 
further  sanctification  depends  on  Him  from  whose  torn  side  the 
blessed  stream  flowed  forth  to  the  cleansing  of  the  nations.  .  .  . 
Those  whom  He  saves  He  also  sanctifies.  If  we  believe  that 
His  death  has  obtained  pardon  for  our  sins,  we  must  also  believe 
that  His  grace  has  quickened  us  to  a  life  of  holiness.  And  if  our 
actions  do  not  show  forth  our  faith,  if  our  hearts  be  not  right 
before  Him,  we  may  be  sure  that,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
His  sacrifice  hath  not  yet  taken  effect,  and  that  the  curse  of  God 
is  in  force  against  our  souls,  pronounced  against  all  those  that 
work  iniquity. 

"...  What  now  remains  but  a  constant  and  earnest  recollec- 
tion that  the  privileges  and  the  duties  of  a  Christian  go  always 
hand  in  hand  ;  that  the  greater  the  mercies  received  the  more 
need  there  is  of  showing  forth  our  thankfulness  ;  that  we  do  not 
cease  to  be  the  servants  of  God  when  we  are  admitted  to  the 
privileges  of  His  children,  but  that  from  these  last,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  more  illustrious  obedience  is  expected,  the  service  of  love,  the 
free-will  offering  of  the  heart,  the  ardour  which,  endeavouring  to 
do  all,  thinks  all  too  little  to  repay  the  benefits  received  and  ex- 
press the  affection  felt,  and  which,  after  a  life  spent  in  the 
service  of  its  Lord,  lays  down  at  length  its  tranquil  head  to 
slumber  beneath  the  Cross,  content  to  possess  no  other  than  His 
blood,  and  presuming  to  expect  no  further  reward  than  His 
mercy." 

This  was  an  appropriate  introduction  to  the  Confirmation 
address  to  forty-two  Christians,  delivered  "  with  even  more 
than  his  wonted  earnest  and  affectionate  manner." 

"  I  dare  not  doubt  the  last  words  of  our  Lord  upon  earth, 
when  He  sent  forth  His  ministers  with  a  like  commission  to  that 
which  He  had  Himself  recei\  ed  of  His  Father  ;  and  when,  though 
foreseeing — as  what  did  He  not  foresee  ? — the  lamentable  de- 
generacy of  those  who  should  bear  His  name,  He  promised, 
nevertheless,  to  His  Church  His  invisible  protection  and  presence 
till  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  should  become  the  kingdom  of  the 


334 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Lamb,  and  this  same  Jesus  which  was  then  taken  up  from  us  into 
heaven  should  so  come  again  in  hke  manner  as  He  was  seen 
going  into  heaven. 

"  O  Master  !  O  Saviour  !  O  Judge  and  King  !  O  God,  faith- 
ful and  true  !  Thy  word  is  sure,  though  our  sinful  eyes  may  not 
witness  its  fulfilment !  Surely  Thou  art  in  this  place  and  in 
every  place  where  Thine  ordinances  are  reverenced  and  Thy 
name  is  duly  called  on  !  Thy  treasures  are  in  earthen  vessels, 
but  they  are  Thy  treasures  still.  Though  prophecies  may  fail  and 
tongues  may  cease.  Thy  truth  remains  the  same  ;  and  though 
prophecies  ha\  e  failed  and  tongues  have  ceased,  and  though  the 
heaven  and  the  earth  have  grown  old,  and  are  ready  to  vanish 
away,  yet  it  is  impossible  but  that  when  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  Thy  name,  Thou  also  shouldst  be  in  the  midst  of 
them.  So  continue  with  us.  Lord,  evermore,  and  let  the  Spirit, 
the  Angel  of  Thy  presence,  be  with  us  all  our  days,  even  as  He 
hath  this  day  been  at  hand  to  help,  to  deliver  and  to  sanctify 
all  who  came  to  receive  Him. 

"...  Let  me  entreat  you  to  remember  sometimes  in  your 
prayers  those  ministers  of  Christ  who  now  have  laboured  for  your 
instruction,  that  we  who  have  preached  to  you  may  not  ourselves 
be  cast  away,  but  that  it  may  be  given  to  us  also  to  walk  in  this 
life  present  according  to  the  words  of  the  Gospel  which  we  have 
received  of  our  Lord,  and  to  rejoice  hereafter  with  you,  the 
children  of  our  care,  in  that  land  where  the  wear)'  shall  find 
repose  and  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  ;  where  we  shall  be- 
hold God  as  He  is,  and  be  ourselves  made  like  unto  God  in 
innocence,  and  happiness,  and  immortality  ! " 

With  such  words  Reginald  Heber  closed  his  ministr)-, 
though  he  knew  it  not.  The  difficult  acoustics  of  the  church 
and  the  unusual  heat  of  the  day  oppressed  the  preacher  with 
headache  and  languor  at  its  close,  so  that  he  was  persuaded 
not  to  address  the  Tamil  congregation  in  the  evening.  But 
he  ministered  to  his  sick  chaplain,  and  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Fenn 
of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  at  Cottayam  approving  of 
his  neutrality  in  the  disputes  in  the  Syrian  Church. 

"  Our  conversation  this  afternoon  turned  chiefly  on  the 
blessedness  of  heaven,  and  the  best  means  of  preparing  for 
its  enjoyment,"  writes  his  chaplain.  Then  it  was  that  Heber 
"repeated  several  lines  of  an  old  hymn,  which,  he  said,  in 
spite  of  one  or  two  expressions  which  familiar  and  injudicious 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  335 


use  had  tended  to  vulgarise,  he  admired  as  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  in  our  language  for  a  rich  and  elevated  tone  of 
devotional  feeling."  The  hymn  was  written  by  Charles 
Wesley  in  1745  for  the  National  Fast  caused  by  the  rising 
under  Charles  Edward  Stuart,  but  was  excluded  from  the 
Wesleyan  Hymn-Book  till  1875  (where  it  is  now  No.  853), 
in  spite  of  its  great  popularity  through  other  collections.  In 
the  circumstances  it  was  to  Heber  as  a  hymn  of  victory  in 
dying,  and  we  therefore  reproduce  it : — • 


"  Head  of  Thy  Church  triumph- 
ant, 

We  joyfully  adore  Thee  ; 

Till  Thou  appear 

Thy  members  here 
Shall  sing  like  those  in  glory. 
We  lift  our  hearts  and  voices 
With  blest  anticipation. 

And  cry  aloud 

And  give  to  God 
The  praise  of  our  salvation. 

"  While  in  affliction's  furnace, 
And  passing  through  the  fire. 
Thy  love  we  praise, 
Which  knows  our  days. 
And  ever  brings  us  nigher. 
We  clap  our  hands  exulting 
In  Thine  almighty  favour  ; 
The  love  divine 
Which  made  us  Thine 
Shall  keep  us  Thine  for  ever. 


"  Thou  dost  conduct  Thy  people 
Through  torrents  of  tempta- 
tion, 
Nor  will  we  fear, 
While  Thou  art  near, 
The  fire  of  tribulation. 
The  world  with  sin  and  Satan 
In  vain  our  march  opposes. 
Through  Thee  we  shall 
Break  through  them  all. 
And  sing  the  song  of  Moses. 

"  By  faith  we  see  the  glory 
To  which  Thou  shall  restore  us, 
The  Cross  despise 
For  that  high  prize 
Wliich  Thou  hast  set  before  us. 
And  if  Thou  count  us  worthy. 
We  each,  as  dying  Stephen, 
Shall  see  Thee  stand 
At  God's  right  hand. 
To  take  us  up  to  heaven." 


In  the  evening  Heber  conducted  family  prayers,  particu- 
larly mentioning  Dr.  Hyne,  then  dying,  according  to  promise. 
So  passed  his  last  earthly  Sabbath. 

When  the  day  broke  on  Monday,  3rd  April,  Heber 
drove  to  the  Tamil  church  in  the  Fort,  where,  after  divine 
service,  he  confirmed  eleven  young  Christians,  using  their 
mother  tongue  and  delivering  an  address  ;  thence  to  the 
English  and  Tamil  schools,  and  to  the  Mission-house,  where 
he  investigated  the  state  of  the  schools  ;  he  would  not  remain 


336 


BISHOP  HEBER 


in  the  schoolroom,  which  had  been  shut  up  unventilated  for 
forty-eight  hours.  The  Christian  converts  petitioned  him  to 
place  a  pastor  over  them ;  having  already  arranged  that  Mr. 
Schreyvogel  should  be  stationed  there,  he  promised  that  their 
desire  would  be  at  once  gratified.  Standing  on  the  steps,  he 
exhorted  the  Tamils  to  be  Christians,  not  in  name  only,  but 
in  truth,  and  to  have  their  conversation  honest  among  their 
heathen  countrymen,  and  he  prayed  God  to  pour  down  His 
blessing  upon  them.  Bidding  the  venerable  Kohlhoff  and  the 
chaplain,  Mr.  \\'right,  farewell,  he  returned  as  he  had  come, 
with  Mr.  Doran,  a  young  missionary.  "  In  going  and  return- 
ing," Mr.  Doran  wrote  to  Archdeacon  Corrie,  "he  was  most 
affectionate  in  his  manner,  and  talked  freely  on  the  glorious 
dispensation  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  necessity  which 
rested  on  us  to  propagate  the  faith  throughout  this  vast 
country." 

Still  in  his  robes,  he  visited  his  sick  chaplain,  and  stood  talk- 
ing by  his  bedside  for  half  an  hour,  with  more  than  his  usual 
animation,  about  the  Mission.  He  said  it  broke  his  heart  to 
witness  the  poverty  of  the  congregation,  lamented  that  he  had 
previously  had  so  little  information  of  the  details  of  the  differ- 
ent stations,  and  declared  his  intention  to  require  in  future 
periodical  reports  from  all  in  every  part  of  his  diocese.  After 
some  particular  arrangements  for  the  morning,  he  retired  to 
prepare  for  the  bath  previous  to  the  late  breakfast  of  an 
Anglo-Indian  station.  Having  WTitten  on  his  Confirmation 
address  the  place  and  date  of  delivery,  "he  sat  a  few  minutes 
apparently  absorbed  in  thought."  He  had  been  at  work  of 
the  most  exhausting  and  exciting  nature  for  at  least  four  hours, 
under  cover,  but  robed,  and  in  the  heat  of  a  Madras  April. 

As  is  usual  in  the  greater  official  bungalows  of  an  Indian 
station,  a  plunge  and  swimming  bath  is  provided  in  an  out- 
building, covered  from  the  heat,  and  supplied  from  a  spring  or 
tank.i  The  bath  adjoining  Mr.  Bird's  house  held  seven  feet 
of  water.    The  Bishop  had  enjoyed  its  refreshment  on  the 

'  Nine  years  after,  Bishop  Daniel  Wilson  visited  the  spot,  which  is  thus 
described  in  his  Life  by  Bateman.  "  The  bath  was  a  building  separated  from 
the  house,  and  standing  quite  alone.  It  was  entered  by  a  door,  and  lighted 
by  windows,  cut  dianiondwise  in  stone,  but  unglazed.  In  the  floor  yawned 
the  deep  excavation  called  a  bath,  measuring  fifteen  feet  in  length  by  eight 
in  breadth.    The  descent  into  it  was  by  stone  steps.    The  Bishop  went  down 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  337 


two  previous  mornings.  Now,  aflcr  resting  for  a  few  minutes 
as  if  to  cool  himself,  he  went  into  the  ijuilding.  Half  an  hour 
passed  without  a  sound,  when  his  servant,  alarmed,  opened 
the  door  and  saw  the  body  of  his  master  under  the  water. 
Running  to  Mr.  Robinson's  room  with  a  bitter  cry,  he  declared 
that  the  Bishop  was  dead.  Robinson  rushed  to  the  bath, 
plunged  in,  and,  along  with  a  bearer,  lifted  the  body  from  the 
water,  when  he  and  Mr.  Doran  carried  it  to  the  nearest  room. 
Their  immediate  efforts  to  restore  animation,  followed  up 
by  those  of  the  garrison  and  superintending  surgeons,  who 
arrived  at  once,  were  in  vain  : — "  the  blessed  spirit  was  already 
before  the  throne  of  God."  The  venerable  Kohlhoff,  who 
had  said  of  him  only  the  day  before,  "  If  St.  Paul  had  visited 
the  missions  he  could  not  have  done  more,"  wept  aloud, 
exclaiming,  "We  have  lost  our  second  Schwartz,  who  loved 
our  Mission  and  laboured  for  it ;  he  had  all  the  energy  and 
benevolence  of  Schwartz,  and  more  than  his  condescension. 
Why  has  God  bereaved  us  thus?" 

Reginald  Heber  was  thus  translated  almost  in  a  moment 
from  unceasing  service  on  earth  to  be  for  ever  with  his 
Master.  The  first  shock  of  the  cold  water,  acting  on  a 
nervous  system  weakened  by  overwork  and  recent  fever, 
caused  a  blood-vessel  to  burst  in  the  brain.  The  Calcutta 
physician  who  knew  him  best,  "contemplating  the  splendid 
talents  and  ever-active  energies  of  this  beloved  prelate,  who 
knew  no  rest  during  his  waking  hours,"  declared  that  he  was 
prone  to  dangerous  disturbance  of  his  nervous  system,  a  cause 
of  death  which  was  strengthened  by  an  unhealthy  climate,  and 
daily  nourished  by  his  natural  habits.  But  for  the  last  sad 
accident  there  might  have  been  exacted  "  the  price  which 
exalted  intelligence  sometimes  pays  for  its  pre-eminent  gifts." 
No  one  was  so  closely  associated  with  Heber  as  Archdeacon 
Corrie,  and  he  again  and  again  in  his  correspondence  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  excessive  work  in  a  climate,  the 
necessities  of  which  he  had  not  learned  scrupulously  to  regard, 
was  sufficient  to  account  for  the  sudden  eclipse. 

and  stood  at  the  bottom.  When  there,  he  had  to  raise  his  hands  above  his 
head  in  order  to  reach  the  narrow  ledge  running  round  the  room,  so  that 
it  must  have  been  si.\  or  seven  feet  deep,  and  was  always  kept  quite  full  of 
water.  It  caused  a  shudder  to  look  down  while  lis'cning  to  the  exaggerated 
stories  told  by  the  native  servant. 

Z 


338 


BISHOP  HEBER 


The  officer  commanding  at  Trichinopoly  announced  "the 
death  this  morning  of  the  Right  Reverend  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  Calcutta,"  and  the  mihtary  arrangements  for  the  funeral. 
Major-General  Hall,  commanding  the  southern  division, 
directed  that  all  officers  wear  mourning  for  a  month.  On 
Tuesday,  4th  April,  while  it  was  yet  dawn,  the  distance  of 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  Mr.  Bird's  house  to  the  gate  of  St. 
John's  Church  in  the  Fort  was  lined  by  the  troops,  the  5th 
Light  Cavalry,  the  20th  and  27  th  Regiments  of  Native 
Infantry,  and  H.M.  48th,  now  the  Northamptonshire  Regiment. 
As  the  sun  rose  the  first  of  forty-three  minute  guns,  corre- 
sponding with  the  age  of  the  departed,  was  fired,  and  the 
body  was  carried  by  a  lieutenant,  a  sergeant,  and  twenty-four 
English  soldiers  down  the  long  line  of  troops,  each  file 
presenting  arms  as  it  passed.  The  flag  was  hoisted  half-mast 
high  all  the  day.  The  pall  was  borne  by  the  chief  civil 
and  military  authorities.  The  chief  mourner  was  the  domestic 
chaplain,  accompanied  by  the  captain  of  the  episcopal  escort 
and  the  three  missionaries  Kohlhoff,  Doran,  and  Schre>-vogel. 
The  Native  Christians  and  thousands  of  Hindoos  and  Moham- 
medans thronged  to  catch  sight  of  the  bier.  The  band  and 
drummers  of  H.M.  48th  supplied  the  solemn  music  of  the 
march.  On  the  north  side  of  the  Communion  Table,  from 
which  forty  hours  before  the  Bishop  had  blessed  the  crowd- 
ing worshippers,  the  body  of  Reginald  Heber  was  buried, 
while  many  wept  aloud.  From  nine  pieces  of  cannon  three 
salvos  were  then  fired. 

So  they  laid  to  rest,  in  the  midst  of  the  Christian  soldiers 
and  civilians,  and  of  the  converts,  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan, 
the  second  Lord  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  the  Chief  Missionary  of 
the  East,  the  sweet  singer  of  the  Missionary  Church,  the  man 
greatly  beloved. 

The  sudden  death  of  Heber  filled  India  and  England  with 
something  like  consternation.  The  Gazettes  of  Fort  William 
and  Fort  St.  George  ordered  the  usual  signs  of  general  mourn- 
ing— the  flag  half-mast  high,  the  minute  guns  fired  from  the 
saluting  battery.  The  Government  placed  on  his  grave  a 
marble  slab,  and  above  it  erected  the  mural  tablet  which 
commemorates  his  death  "in  the  third  year  of  his  episco- 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  339 


pate,"  followed  by  the  words  Be  ye  also  ready.  The  Mission 
church,  where  he  had  spoken  his  last  words  to  the  Tamil 
people  an  hour  before  his  death,  the  Government  rebuilt,  care- 
fully preserving  untouched  the  recess  from  which  he  had 
spoken.  At  these  two  Christian  shrines,  by  the  Rock  of 
Trichinopoly  and  at  not  distant  Tanjor,  the  missionary  pilgrim  ^ 
may  receive  a  new  inspiration  to  work  and  pray  for  the  con- 
version of  India  beside  the  dust  of  Schwartz  and  of  Heber. 
A  few  years  after,  William  Carey  was  laid  to  rest  among  his 
converts  at  Serampore,  Bengal.  Half  a  century  after,  the  man 
who  most  resembled  Heber,  John  Wilson,  ended  fifty  years 
of  sacred  toil  in  the  old  Scottish  burial-ground  of  Bombay. 
Schwartz  and  Carey,  Heber  and  Wilson — that  is  a  noble  succes- 
sion in  a  land  rich  with  the  dust  of  Christian  men  and  women, 
of  all  services,  who  in  the  past  century  loved  the  peoples  of 
India  so  as  to  die  for  them. 

In  Trichinopoly,  in  Madras,  in  Bombay,  in  Colombo,  in 
Calcutta,  public  meetings  were  held,  at  which  the  Governor- 
General,  the  Governors,  the  Chief  Justices,  and  Commanders- 
in-Chief  gave  voice  to  the  general  sorrow,  and  raised  funds  for 
worthy  memorials  of  Reginald  Heber,  such  as  Chantrey's  in 
St.  George's  Cathedral.  The  two  great  Missionary  Societies 
followed  Bombay  and  Ceylon  in  endowing  Heber  scholarships 
for  native  Indian  and  foreign  Asiatic  students  in  Bishop's 

1  Augusta  Klein,  who  with  her  late  sister  visited  Trichinopoly  in  1892,  writes 
thus  in  her  book,  Among  ike  Gods,  Scenes  of  India  (William  Blackwood, 
1895):  "The  church  is  blessed  with  very  reverent  services,  and  is  made 
specially  sacred  by  the  memory  of  the  beloved  Bishop  Heber,  who  was  buried 
here  in  St.  John's  Church  on  the  north  side  of  the  altar.  After  evensong 
the  travellers  gathered  round  the  beautiful  brass  which  marks  his  resting-place, 
while  their  thoughts  go- back  to  that  3rd  of  April  1826  which,  with  its  earnest 
devotions,  its  hard  and  most  honourable  work,  and  its  sudden  quiet  call  to 
rest,  made  so  happy  an  ending  to  that  noble  Christian  life." 

2  Bishop  Caldwell,  in  his  Records  of  the  Early  History  of  the  Tinnevclly 
Mission  (Madras,  1881),  a  work  of  suggestive  interest  like  all  he  wrote,  notes  : 
"  It  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  God,  though  He  changes 
His  instruments,  changes  not  His  work  or  purpose,  that  the  very  month  after 
the  Church  in  India,  and  especially  in  Madras,  sustained  what  appeared  to 
be  almost  a  crushing  loss  in  the  death  of  Bishop  Heber,  it  pleased  God  that 
one  of  the  great  Missionary  Societies  of  the  Church  (.S.  P.G. )  should  com- 
mence its  work  in  Madras.  The  friends  of  the  Society  did  not  wait  even 
for  the  appointment  of  a  successor  to  Bishop  Heber,  but  took  the  first 
opportunity  of  organising  themselves  into  a  committee,"  as  indeed  Heber 
himself  had  planned. 


340 


BISHOP  HEBER 


College.  From  the  wailing  chorus  of  eulogy  which  arose,  we 
reproduce  the  words  of  Sir  Thomas  Munro  in  Madras,  and 
Sir  Charles  Grey,  Chief  Justice  of  Calcutta. 

Sir  Thomas  Munro — himself  soon  to  pass  away  with  almost 
equal  suddenness — said  of  Heber  : — 

"...  There  was  a  charm  in  his  conversation  by  which  in 
private  society  he  found  his  way  to  all  hearts,  as  readily  as  he 
did  to  those  of  his  congregation  by  his  eloquence  in  the  pulpit. 
There  was  about  him  such  candour  and  simplicity  of  manners, 
such  benevolence,  such  unwearied  earnestness  in  the  discharge  of 
his  sacred  functions,  and  such  mildness  in  his  zeal,  as  would  in 
any  other  individual  have  ensured  our  esteem.  But  when  these 
qualities  are,  as  they  were  in  him,  united  to  taste,  to  genius,  to 
high  station,  and  to  still  higher  intellectual  attainments,  they  form 
a  character  such  as  his  was,  eminently  calculated  to  excite  our 
love  and  veneration.  These  sentiments  towards  him  were  every- 
where felt ;  wherever  he  passed,  in  the  wide  range  of  his  visita- 
tion, he  left  behind  him  the  same  impression.  He  left  all  who 
approached  him  convinced  that  they  never  had  before  seen  so 
rarely  gifted  a  person,  and  that  they  could  never  hope  to  see 
such  a  one  again.  The  loss  of  such  a  man,  so  suddenly  cut  off 
in  the  midst  of  his  useful  career,  is  a  public  calamity." 

The  Calcutta  meeting  was  remarkable  for  the  presence  and 
addresses  of  Lord  Combermere,  Holt  Mackenzie,  J.  H. 
Harington,  W.  B.  Bayley,  W.  Prinsep,  and  Charles  Lushing- 
ton,  a  group  of  renowned  administrators,  as  well  as  of  Arch- 
deacon Corrie  and  Principal  Mill. 

Sir  Charles  Edward  Grey  declared : — 

" .  .  .  It  is  just  four-and-twenty  years  since  I  first  became 
acquainted  with  him  at  the  University,  of  which  he  was,  beyond 
all  question  or  comparison,  the  most  distinguished  student  of  his 
time.  The  name  of  Reginald  Heber  was  in  every  mouth  ;  his 
society  was  courted  by  young  and  old  ;  he  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of  favour,  admiration,  and  regard,  from  which  I  have  never  known 
any  one  but  himself  who  would  not  have  derived,  and  for  life,  an 
unsalutary  influence.  Towards  the  close  of  his  academical  career 
he  crowned  his  previous  honours  by  the  production  of  his 
Palestine;  of  which  single  work,  the  fancy,  the  elegance,  and  the 
grace  have  secured  him  a  place  in  the  list  of  those  who  bear  the 
proud  title  of  English  poets.     This,  according  to  usage,  was 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  341 


recited  in  public ;  and  when  that  scene  of  his  early  triumph 
comes  upon  my  memory,  that  elevated  rostrum  from  which  he 
looked  upon  friendly  and  admiring  faces,  that  decorated  theatre, 
those  grave  forms  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  mingling  with  a 
resplendent  throng  of  rank  and  beauty,  those  antique  mansions 
of  learning,  those  venerable  groves,  refreshing  streams,  and 
shaded  walks,  the  vision  is  broken  by  another,  in  which  the 
youthful  and  presiding  genius  of  the  former  scene  is  lying  in  his 
distant  grave,  amongst  the  sands  of  Southern  India — believe 
me,  the  contrast  is  striking,  and  the  recollection  most  painful. 

"...  What  he  was  in  India  why  should  I  describe?  You 
saw  him  ;  you  bear  testimony.  He  has  already  received  in  a 
sister  Presidency  the  encomiums  of  those  from  whom  praise  is 
most  valuable,  especially  of  one  whose  own  spotless  integrity, 
and  a  sincerity  far  above  suspicion,  make  every  word  of  com- 
mendation which  is  drawn  from  him  of  tenfold  value.  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that,  short  as  their  acquaintance  had  been, 
there  are  few  from  whom  the  voice  of  praise  would  have  sounded 
more  gratefully  to  him  who  was  the  subject  of  it.  Would  that 
he  might  have  lived  to  hear  it  ! 

"...  I  confidently  trust  that  there  shall  one  day  be  erected 
in  Asia  a  Church,  of  which  the  corners  shall  be  the  corners  of  the 
land,  and  its  foundation  the  Rock  of  Ages  ;  but  when  remote 
posterity  have  to  examine  its  structure,  and  to  trace  the  progress 
of  its  formation,  I  wish  they  may  not  have  to  record  that  it  was 
put  together  amidst  discord,  and  noise,  and  bloodshed,  and  con- 
fusion of  tongues,  but  that  it  rose  in  quietness  and  beauty,  like 
that  new  temple  where  '  no  hammer  or  axe,  nor  any  tool  of  iron 
was  heard  whilst  it  was  in  building  ' ;  or  in  the  words  of  the  Bishop 
himself — 

"  '  No  hammer  fell,  no  ponderous  axes  rung  ; 

Like  some  tall  palm  the  mystic  fabric  sprung  ! ' 

"  That  such  may  be  the  event,  many  hands,  many  spirits  like 
his,  must  be  engaged  in  the  work  ;  and  because  of  my  conviction 
that  they  are  rarely  to  be  found,  I  feel  myself  justified  in  saying 
that  his  death  is  a  loss,  not  only  to  his  friends  by  whom  he  was 
loved,  and  to  his  family  of  whom  he  was  the  idol,  but  to  England, 
to  India,  and  to  the  world." 

Corrie,  who  was  destined  to  fill  the  place  of  a  deceased 
Bishop  of  Calcutta  four  times,  thus  wrote  to  his  brother,  the 
English  Archdeacon :  "  A  second  escutcheon  hung  up  in  the 


342 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Cathedral  reminds  us  that  two  bishops  have  passed  away  from 
among  us.  My  mind  seems  wearied  with  considering  what 
may  be  destined  for  our  Indian  Church.  The  work  of 
Missions  has  assumed  a  regular  form.  In  the  south  of  India 
regular  help,  and  enough  of  it,  would  give  Christianity  an 
almost  established  form,  so  many  natives  profess  Christianity. 
May  God  be  gracious  unto  the  land,  and  send  us  a  man  of  right 
spirit." 

News  of  Bishop  Heber's  death  reached  England  overland 
in  August,  four  months  after  the  event,  and  the  Osprey 
carried  the  official  intelligence  by  the  Cape.  We  have  none 
of  Charlotte  Dod's  letters  to  Heber,^  nor  any  record  from 
her  pen  of  the  friend  and  brother  she  had  lost,  but  Maria 
Leycester  thus  expressed  her  grief  to  Augustus  W.  Hare,  who 
had  just  before  told  her  of  the  death  of  his  uncle,  Dean 
Shipley,  two  months  and  a  half  after  Heber's. 

".Stoke  Rectory,  yd  September  1826. 

"  I  did  not  think  you  would  a  second  time  have  had  to  com- 
municate intelligence  so  grievous.  .  .  .  Dear,  dear  Reginald  ! 
I  had  hoped  so  confidently  he  would  have  been  spared  ;  that  so 
faithful  a  servant,  so  noble  a  pattern  of  what  a  Christian  should 
be,  would  have  been  preserved  to  continue  the  great  work  for 
which  he  seemed  so  peculiarly  marked  out.  .  .  .  This  is  one  of 
those  mysterious  dispensations  in  which  nothing  but  an  unlimited 
faith  can  avail  us  anything.  Here  is  no  selfish  grief:  the  public 
loss  seems  almost  more  than  the  private  one  ;  yet  who  that  has 
ever  felt  the  support  and  comfort  of  his  friendship,  who  that 
ever  knew  the  tenderness,  kindness,  and  gentleness  of  nature, 
added  to  those  uncommon  talents  and  powers  of  mind,  can 
ever  cease  to  regret  that  they  shall  see  him  no  more  ?  .  .  . 
I  am  most  grateful  to  have  had  such  a  friend — to  have  been  per- 
mitted an  intimate  acquaintance  with  a  character  like  his  ;  but 
after  receiving  from  him  the  affection  and  kindness  of  the 
tenderest  brother,  after  living  so  constantly  with  him  as  I  have 
done,  you  may  well  believe  that  it  is  now  a  hard  struggle  to  feel 
that  we  have  in  this  life  parted  for  ever. 

"  Dear  Augustus,  we  ha\  e  lost  two  whom  we  dearly  loved  ; 
but  their  spirits  continue  to  live  with  us,  their  memories  to  rest  in 

^  These  letters  may  still  be  extant.  The  probable  history  of  them  is  best 
known  by  Mrs.  W'olley-Dod,  of  Edge  Hall,  M.alpas. 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  343 


our  hearts,  that  we  may  place  our  hopes  on  that  world  to  which 
they  are  gone  before  us,  and  so  live  here  that  we  may  one  day 
be  united  to  them  in  heaven." 

At  Oxford  the  Treasurers  of  All  Souls  and  Brasenose  Colleges 
invited  subscriptions  for  a  monument  "  to  perpetuate  those 
feelings  of  admiration  and  esteem  which  are  well  known  to 
prevail  in  the  Kingdom  at  large,  and  to  transmit  to  posterity  a 
record  of  his  eminent  services  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity 
in  India."  Wynn  enlarged  the  proposal  so  as  to  represent  the 
whole  English  people,  and  at  a  meeting  in  his  house  in  London 
there  began  the  movement  which  resulted  in  Chantrey's  colossal 
figure  of  Reginald  Heber  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of  St. 
Paul.  In  Hodnet  Church  there  has  been  placed,  in  a  new 
chapel  to  the  right  of  the  pulpit,  a  monument  of  its  beloved 
Rector,  bearing  Southey's  inscription.  In  front  of  it  is  the 
recumbent  tomb,  with  exquisite  effigies  of  Blanche  Emily 
Heber,  his  grand-daughter,  who  died  in  1870  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two.  The  east  window  commemorates  Heber's  only 
sister,  who  restored  the  church  several  years  ago,  and  wrote 
the  inscription  on  the  tomb  of  Richard  Heber.  The  plain 
old  oak  pulpit  from  which  Reginald  preached  is  still  in  use, 
and  the  old  desk  of  Reformation  times,  with  the  Bible  and 
a  copy  of  the  Paraphrases  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts  by  Erasmus 
chained  to  the  oak. 

These  memorials  of  Reginald  Heber  have  recently  been 
completed  by  one  in  the  place  of  his  birth  and  church  of  his 
boyhood,  St.  Oswald's,  Malpas. 

On  I  St  May  1887  the  learned  historian,  Dr.  Stubbs,  now 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  then  of  Chester,  preached  there  a  sermon 
previous  to  the  dedication  of  the  Heber  window.  After  the 
collect  of  the  day  came  this  special  collect ; — 

"Almighty  God,  who  didst  give  to  Thy  servant,  Reginald 
Heber,  many  excellent  gifts  and  graces  to  use  them  always  to  Thy 
honour  and  service,  accept,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  offering  of  this 
window,  which  we  dedicate  to  Thy  glory  and  to  the  beauty  of 
Thy  sanctuary  in  remembrance  of  him  ;  and  grant  that,  having 
this  memorial  constantly  before  our  eyes,  we  may  endeavour  our- 
selves to  follow  the  example  of  his  faithfulness,  honesty,  industry, 
and  devotion  in  the  imitation  of  Thy  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom, 


344 


BISHOP  HEBER 


with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour  and  glor)',  now  and 
for  evermore.  Amen." 

The  text  was  i  Cor.  xi.  i — Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  1 
also  am  of  Christ.    The  sermon  thus  concluded  : — 

"  Now,  after  more  than  sixty  years,  we  are  dedicating  a  window 
to  his  memory  in  his  native  place.  In  those  years  the  Colonial 
Churches  of  England  have  multiplied  ten  times  of  what  they  were  ; 
the  missionary  churches  have  been  founded  and  sown  in  the  blood 
of  martyr  priests  and  martyr  bishops  ;  India  itself  has  passed  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Company  to  the  sway  of  our  Queen  as  Empress. 
A  long  series  of  changes  at  home  and  abroad  have  made  the  world 
look  very  different  from  anything  that  Heber  saw,  but  in  the 
pictures  of  this  window  we  have  a  story  for  all  time  :  ^  the  Saviour 

'  The  Chester  Couraiit  of  4th  May  1887  published  the  following  detailed 
description  :  "  The  window  consists  of  five  divisions,  with  tracery  lights  above, 
and  the  design  has  been  made  doubly  interesting  from  the  fact  of  its  not  only 
containing  Biblical  subjects  representing  symbolically  his  work,  but  actual 
scenes  from  his  life  and  mission  have  been  introduced  with  the  object  of 
emphasising  those  of  a  typical  character. 

"This  design,  which  divides  the  window  into  two  parts,  contains,  in  the 
upper,  or  principal  compartments,  the  following  subjects,  namely — 

"  ist.  King  David  in  the  Temple  composing  psalms  (Hymns). 

"  2nd.  The  Magi  arriving  at  Bethlehem  (Call  of  Gentiles). 

' '  3i  d.  Descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost  (The  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  by  which  he  worked,  and  in  whom  he  trusted). 

"  4th.  St.  Paul  preaching  at  Mars'  Hill  (Preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  people 
of  India). 

"  5th.  .St.  John  writing  his  Apocalypse  (\\'orks  and  writings). 

"In  the  small  predella  subjects  underneath  there  are  depicted  the  following — 

"  I.  The  Bishop  composing  his  hymns. 

■ '  2.  Confirmation  of  natives. 

"  3.  His  consecration  as  Bishop  of  Calcutta. 

"  4.  I're.aching  to  the  natives  outside  the  Cathedral  at  Calcutta. 

■ '  5.  His  last  sermon  in  England  (before  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  8th  June  1823). 

' '  These  are  suitably  framed  in  rich  architectural  canopy  work  of  the  fifteenth 
century  style  of  Gothic  art.  The  subject  of  the  tracery  is  that  of  our  Lord 
enthroned  in  majesty,  surrounded  by  cherubim,  seraphim,  and  angels  holding 
shields,  on  which  are  depicted  emblems  of  the  Passion.  Our  blessed  Lord 
crowned  as  king,  and  wearing  the  stole  as  priest,  is  seated  on  a  golden  throne. 
His  feet  resting  on  a  rainbow,  and  seven  stars  around  His  head.  This  has  a 
backgroimd  of  seraphs,  typical  of  life  and  knowledge.  Before  Him,  on  a 
book  sealed  with  seven  seals,  stands  the  Lamb,  with  the  banner  of  victory  ; 
and  from  the  base  of  the  throne  issue  four  rivers,  which  watered  Paradise. 

"  The  window  is  a  fine  specimen  of  art  workmanship,  costing  ;^300,  and 
;^20  for  new  stonework. 

' '  A  window  by  Messrs.  Heaton,  Butler,  and  Bayne  adorns  the  church  at 
Trichinopoly,  and  this  has  been  done  by  the  same  firm." 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  345 


Himself  above  in  the  tracery  of  the  window,  crowned  and  stoled  ; 
beneath,  the  pictures  of  the  Gospel  history  and  saintly  work  ; 
imitations  of  Christ ;  the  sweet  singer ;  the  firstfruits  to  the 
Gentiles  ;  the  Pentecostal  outpouring-  ;  the  preaching  of  St.  Paul ; 
the  beloved  apostle  writing  his  epistles  ;  and  beneath,  the  imitation 
of  this  his  follower — Heber,  the  hymn- writer,  the  bishop  of  the 
native  Gentiles,  the  consecrated  successor  of  the  apostles,  the 
missionary  preacher,  the  devout  and  learned  scholar.  In  all  this, 
beloved,  I  would  have  you  see  the  ideal  of  the  ancient  holiness 
translated  into  the  language  of  to-day  ;  the  way  made  clear  in 
which  men  of  the  nineteenth  century  may  tread  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  apostles. 

"  Centuries  and  fashions  differ  :  in  one  age  the  hermit  saint 
lives  in  the  wilderness,  a  leathern  girdle  about  his  loins,  and 
his  meat  locusts  and  wild  honey ;  in  another  he  fights  with  the 
beasts  of  Ephesus,  or  contends  with  the  philosophers  on  Mars' 
Hill ;  in  another  he  sits  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  hearing  them 
and  asking  them  questions  ;  in  another  he  goes  through  the  streets 
and  lanes  of  the  city  compelling  men  to  come  in  to  the  marriage 
feast ;  in  another  he  is  preaching  in  the  Polynesian  Isles  or  in  the 
regions  of  Ecjuatorial  Africa  ;  in  another  he  is  keeping  the  flock 
of  his  Master  in  a  cjuiet  English  village.  There  was  something  of 
each  of  these  in  the  life  of  the  man  of  whom  1  am  speaking  ;  but 
in  any  one  of  these  vocations,  and  in  countless  others,  there  is  a 
way  Zionwards  for  every  one  who  has  the  will,  and  a  path  of  light 
shining  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.  We  do  honour 
them  to-day,  and  try  to  do  honour  to  our  Lord,  in  thanking  Him  for 
the  service  of  His  devoted  servant.  We  thank  Him  for  the  sweet 
singer  whose  hymns  are  household  songs  with  most  of  us.  '  The 
Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war,'  '  Brightest  and  best  of  the  sons  of 
the  morning,'  '  Hosanna  to  the  living  Lord,'  'Virgin-born,  we  bow 
before  Thee,'  '  God,  who  madest  earth  and  heaven,'  '  Spirit  of  truth, 
on  this  Thy  day,'  'Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,'  'From 
Greenland's  icy  mountains  ' — these  are,  perhaps,  best  known  among 
the  gems  of  his  Christian  year,  but  there  are  many  more  that  have 
given  voice  to  holy  desires,  and  comfort  to  earnest  hearts. 

"We  thank  Him  for  the  great  missionary  pioneer,whosevoice  first 
in  many  parts  of  India  proclaimed  the  conquests  of  the  Gospel,  and 
set  an  example  for  all  of  us  that  follow.  We  thank  Him  for  the 
Christian  gentleman  who  could,  in  the  midst  of  English  society, 
set  a  pattern  of  holiness  without  assumption,  and  kindly  courtesy 
with  true  purity  of  word  and  thought.  We  thank  Him  for  the 
scholar  and  divine,  country  clergyman  and  country  gentleman,  who. 


346 


BISHOP  HEBER 


at  the  call  of  duty,  gave  up  home,  and  country,  and  rest,  and  ease, 
and  society,  and  comfort,  and  culture  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that 
called  him,  and  to  perfect  His  work.  We  thank  Him  for  the 
pattern  which,  in  and  by  this  His  ministering  servant,  he  set  us  of 
manly  performance  of  duty  and  entire  devotion  to  work.  And 
thanking  Him  and  honouring  Him  who  has  blessed  His  sen-ant 
with  so  many  great  and  excellent  gifts,  and  led  him  all  his  life 
through  from  strength  to  strength,  we  pray  that  we  may  each, 
according  to  his  measure  and  in  his  own  place,  have  grace  to 
follow  so  good  an  example." 

Before  going  out  to  India,  Heber  had  impressed  on  his 
friend  Wynn,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  the  need 
for  dividing  the  jurisdiction  offered  to  him  into  three  dioceses 
of  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bombay,  the  Bishop  of  the  first  being 
Primate.  That  was  impossible  without  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
which  there  was  no  early  prospect  of  securing.  Alike  by  his 
life  and  by  his  death,  Heber  made  the  reform  imperative. 
Not  till  1828  did  Bishop  James,  his  successor,  reach  Calcutta 
to  die.  In  December  1829  Bishop  Turner  was  sent  out,  and  he 
died  in  July  1831.  Both  made  each  of  the  three  Archdeacons 
commissary  within  their  jurisdiction,  so  that  Corrie  was  virtual 
Bishop  till  Daniel  Wilson  began  his  long  episcopate  on  4th 
November  1833.^  The  next  Charter  created  Bishoprics  of 
Madras  and  Bombay  from  1835. 

Steadily  as  the  work  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
East  and  in  Africa  has  extended,  through  the  Church 
Missionary  and  Gospel  Propagation  Societies,  missionary 
episcopates  such  as  Heber  longed  for  have  been  privately 
endowed,  till  now  the  ecclesiastical  province  of  India  and 

'  Bishop  Johnston,  of  Calcutta,  and  the  Metropohtan  of  India,  has  signi- 
fied his  intention  of  resigning  his  see  in  the  course  of  the  present  j'ear  (1895). 
Should  Dr.  Johnston  hve  to  carry  out  his  intention,  he  will  be  the  first  Bishop 
of  that  historic  see  who  has  retired  from  the  post  of  duty.  Dean  \'aughan 
has  well  said  that  there  has  been  "a  halo  of  true  heroism"  surrounding  the 
Bishopric  of  Calcutta.  Its  first  Bishop,  the  learned  Dr.  Middleton,  died  in 
Calcutta  ;  Reginald  Heber,  the  poet  Bishop,  was  found  dead  in  his  bath  at 
Trichinopoly  ;  Bishops  James  and  Turner  died  at  their  posts  after  very  brief 
episcopates  ;  the  Venerable  Daniel  Wilson,  who  resigned  the  valuable  t)ene- 
fice  of  Islington  for  foreign  service,  expired  at  Calcutta  at  an  advanced  age ; 
Dr.  Cotton,  the  friend  of  .-Vrnold,  and  master  of  Marlborough,  was  drowned 
by  accident  in  Bengal ;  and  Robert  Milman,  whose  life  breathed  the  truest 
heroism,  died  in  the  midst  of  active  missionary  work  on  the  frontier  of 
.Afghanistan.  —  The  Churchman. 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  347 


Ceylon  consists  of  these  ten  :  the  Metropolitical  See  of 
Calcutta,  with  Madras,  Bombay,  Colombo,  Lahore,  Rangoon, 
Travancore  and  Cochin,  Chota  Nagpoor,  Lucknow,  and  Tinne- 
velli.  There  are  other  six  Asiatic  dioceses  which  have  not  yet 
been  organised  into  a  province :  Jerusalem,  Victoria,  Mid- 
China,  North  China,  Singapore,  Japan  and  Corea.  Australia 
has  fourteen  dioceses,  New  Zealand  and  the  Pacific  have  eight, 
Africa  has  seventeen.  The  area  in  which  Heber  represented 
Christianity  of  the  Anglican  type,  and  to  which  he  was  chief 
missionary,  is  now,  seventy  years  after  his  incessant  toils, 
ministered  to  by  fifty-six  bishops,  overseeing  a  staff  of  2422 
chaplains  and  missionaries.  To  these  must  be  added  some 
bishops  and  missionaries  of  the  American  Episcopal  Churches. 

In  England,  from  the  beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
Reginald  Heber  was  a  zealous  and  catholic  supporter  of  the 
missions  of  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Bible  Society, 
when  nearly  all  his  class,  the  Oxford  clergy  and  the  squires, 
kept  aloof,  or  would  have  sneered  the  movement  down  as 
fanatical,  leaving  it  to  the  Dissenters,  as  Southey  complained. 
In  India,  like  Henry  Martyn,  Heber's  aspirations  went  out 
after  the  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans,  while  he  was  full  of  care 
for  the  East  India  Company's  servants  and  troops,  and  for  the 
chaplains.  Every  week  he  lived,  every  mile  he  travelled, 
caused  the  missionary  fire  to  burn  within  him.  He  combined, 
as  no  other  foreigner  has  done,  the  personal  fascination,  the 
influence  of  a  high  office  and  broad  culture,  the  zeal  of  an 
evangelical  in  the  best  sense  true  to  the  commission  of  his 
Master,  and  the  high  faculty  of  organisation  directed  by 
business  habits  and  common  sense.  All  this  made  him  the 
true  founder  of  the  Church  of  England  Missions  in  India  and 
the  East.  On  15th  April  1826  Corrie  wrote  to  Sherer  :  "Our 
late  beloved  Bishop  was  so  entirely  a  Missionary  that  we  can 
hardly  hope  to  see  one  like  him  ;  and  in  respect  of  temper  and 
beauty  of  general  disposition,  to  expect  the  like  of  him  seems 
utterly  hopeless.  .  .  .  Such  was  the  natural  amiability  of  his 
character  that  it  was  often  difficult  to  say  whether  he  acted 
from  nature  or  grace.  But  whatever  might  be  judged  by  some, 
at  times,  to  be  errors  of  judgment,  the  general  tenor  of  his  life 
was  so  opposed  to  worldly  maxims,  and  what  the  world  would 
have  wished  him  to  follow,  that  there  seems  no  doubt  grace 


348 


BISHOP  HEBER 


was  the  ruling  influence  of  his  conduct.  .  .  .  How  many  he 
had  drawn  over  to  support  the  missionary  cause  !  "  ^ 

When  Reginald  Heber  gave  his  last  breath  to  the  Tamil 
Church  of  South  India,  and  was  laid  down  so  suddenly  in  the 
heart  of  it,  there  were  not  more  than  forty  thousand  Christians 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  that  region.  They  were  not  then 
a  self-propagating  church,  because  of  the  temporising  policy  of 
their  Lutheran  teachers  as  to  caste  and  anti-Christian  social 
customs  such  as  had  ruined  the  Jesuit  missions.  We  have 
seen  how  firmly,  yet  judiciously  for  an  inquirer  new  to  the 
facts,  Heber  grasped  the  question  and  ordered  investigation 
with  a  view  to  a  decision.  A  fortnight  after  that  he  was  no 
more.  The  results  of  the  Committee  of  Inquiry  fell  to  be 
dealt  with  by  Bishop  Wilson  ten  years  subsequently.  Had 
Heber  lived,  we  cannot  doubt  that  his  opposition  to  caste 
customs  in  the  Christian  church  and  family  would  have  been 
as  thorough-going  as  his  sharper  successor's,  while  it  would 
have  been  expressed  in  a  manner  more  favourable  to  the 
national,  or  racial,  or  historical  spirit  of  the  converts  from 
Hindooism. 

Unhappily,  the  Lutheran  policy  has  not  changed ;  but  we 
date  the  revival  of  the  Church  of  South  India  and  its  mar- 
vellous growth  from  23rd  March  1826,  when  Heber  instituted 
the  inquiry  which  Daniel  Wilson  dealt  with  so  conclusively  in 
his  primary  visitation, '■^  and  in  1894  the  venerable  Bishop 
Cell  completed  on  the  side  of  Tamil  marriage  customs.  In 
January  1835  Daniel  Wilson  visited  Trichinopoly,  and  made 
this  comment :  "  I  have  preached  in  the  pulpit,  I  have  stood 
at  the  self-same  altar,  I  have  placed  my  foot  on  the  very 
spot  which  contains  the  remains  of  the  holy  and  beloved 
Heber.  On  2nd  April  1826  he  preached  there;  the  next 
morning  he  was  a  corpse,  in  the  prime  of  life  and  dawn  of 
usefulness.    Such  are  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Soon  after  the  philosophic  missionary,  George  Berkeley,  had 
been  made  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  that  even  greater  thinker,  Joseph 
Butler,  Bishop  of  Durham,  preached  before  the  Society  for 

'  Memoirs  of  the  Right  Rev.  Daniel  Corrie,  LL.  D. ,  first  Bishop  of  Madras 
(1847),  p.  389. 

-  See  letter  dated  Palace  of  Calcutta,  sth  July  1833,  p.  437,  vol.  i. ,  of 
Bateinan's  Life  of  Right  Rev.  Daniel  Wilson,  D.D.  (John  Murray),  i860. 


TRICHINOPOLY— THE  ROCK  AND  THE  BATH  349 


the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  le 
Bow,  a  sermon  which  Hnks  on  the  missionary  poHcy  of  the 
Irish  prelate  on  the  West  with  the  ceaseless  action  of  the 
English  Metropolitan  of  India.  Bishop  Butler  said  in  1738  : 
"  No  one  has  a  right  to  be  called  a  Christian  who  doth  not 
do  somewhat  in  his  station  towards  the  discharge  of  this  trust 
[the  stewardship  of  the  Faith  in  behalf  of  others] ;  who  doth 
not,  for  instance,  assist  in  keeping  up  the  profession  of  Christi- 
anity where  he  lives.  And  it  is  an  obligation  but  little  more 
remote  to  assist  in  doing  it  in  our  Factories  abroad  and  in  the 
Colonies,  to  which  we  are  related  by  their  being  peopled  from 
our  own  Mother  Country,  and  subjects — indeed  very  necessary 
ones — to  the  same  Government  with  ourselves ;  and  heavier 
yet  is  the  obligation  upon  such  persons  in  particular  as  have 
the  intercourse  of  an  advantageous  commerce  with  them."  ^ 
The  East  India  Company's  Factories  of  his  day  have  expanded 
into  the  dominion  of  the  Queen-Empress,  open  under  the  new 
principle  of  toleration  and  education  to  the  true  Light. 

Since,  as  the  chief  missionary  of  his  brief  episcopate,  Heber 
reorganised  Anglican  missions  in  India  and  Ceylon,  in  Madras 
province  alone  the  40,000  passive  Christians  of  1826  have 
increased,  according  to  the  vital  law  of  the  spiritual  kingdom, 
under  suffragan  successors  so  greatly  after  his  own  heart  and 
life  as  Caldwell  and  Sargent,  to  600,000,  with  800  of  their 
own  race  ordained  pastors,  and  nearly  4000  lay  preachers. 
These  are  superintended  by  some  270  foreign  ordained 
missionaries  of  all  the  Reformed  churches  and  societies. 
"  Can  we  refrain,"  exclaimed  Heber  to  the  Society  for  Promot- 
ing Christian  Knowledge  when,  in  1823,  the  Bishop  of  Bristol 
delivered  to  him  their  valedictory  address,  "  from  indulging  the 
hope  that,  one  century  more,  and  the  thousands  of  converts 
which  our  missionaries  already  number  may  be  extended  into 
a  mighty  multitude  ?  "  Two-thirds  of  the  century  only  have 
passed  since  these  words  were  spoken,  and  even  now  the 
number  approaches  a  million  of  the  natives  of  India  professing 
the  pure  faith  of  the  Gospel. 

'  One  of  llic  greatest  successors  of  Bishop  Butler,  the  Right  Rev.  B.  F. 
Westeott,  D.  D.,  quoted  this  passage  in  his  noble  sermon  of  1895  before  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  in  St.  Bride's  Churcli,  specially  applying  the  words 
to  Great  Britain's  duty  to  the  peoples  of  India. 


350 


BISHOP  HEBER 


When  Robert  Southey  wrote  his  defence  of  William  Carey 
and  the  Serampore  Brotherhood  in  the  first  number  of  the 
Quarterly  Revieiv,  the  article  was  intended  to  be  part  of  a 
work  on  all  Protestant  Missions,  proving  his  "  firm  belief  that 
there  are  but  two  methods  of  extending  civihsation — conquest 
and  conversion — the  latter  the  only  certain  one,"  and  connecting 
the  whole  subject  of  the  reception  of  Christianity  with  that  of 
civilisation.  No  writer,  even  up  to  the  present  time,  could 
have  done  such  a  work  better,  and  it  is  still  a  desideratum,  as 
every  year  adds  to  the  rich  materials.  In  default  of  that,  we 
may  let  Southey's  verse — rarely  equal  to  his  prose — "  On  the 
portrait  of  Reginald  Heber "  complete  this  biography,  as 
Ruskin's  began  the  volume  : — 

"  Large,  England,  is  the  debt 
Thou  owest  to  Heathendom  ; 
To  India  most  of  all,  where  Providence, 
Giving  thee  thy  dominion  there  in  trust. 
Upholds  its  baseless  strength. 
All  seas  have  seen  thy  red-cross  flag 
In  war  triumphantly  display'd  ; 
Late  only  hast  thou  set  that  standard  up 
On  pagan  shores  in  peace  ! 
Yea,  at  this  hour  the  cry  of  blood 
Riseth  against  thee,  from  beneath  the  wheels 
Of  that  seven-headed  Idol's  car  accurst ; 
Against  thee,  from  the  widow's  funeral  pile 
The  smoke  of  human  sacrifice 
Ascends,  even  now,  to  Heaven  ! 

"  The  debt  shall  be  discharged  ;  the  crj'ing  sin 
Silenced  ;  the  foul  offence 
For  ever  done  away. 
Thither  our  saintly  Heber  went, 
In  promise  and  in  pledge 
That  England,  from  her  guilty  torpor  roused, 
Should  zealously  and  wisely  undertake 

Her  awful  task  assign'd  : 
Thither,  devoted  to  the  work,  he  \\ent. 
There  spent  his  precious  life. 
There  left  his  holy  dust. 


SOUTHEY  ON  HIS  PORTRAIT 


35' 


"  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  him 
That  bringeth  good  tidings, 
That  pubhsheth  peace, 
That  bringeth  good  tidings  of  good. 
That  proclaimeth  salvation  for  men  ! 
Where'er  the  Christian  Patriarch  went, 
Honour  and  reverence  heralded  his  way. 

And  blessings  followed  him. 
The  Malabar,  the  Moor,  the  Singhalese, 
The'  unillumed  by  faith. 
Yet  not  the  less  admired 
The  virtue  that  they  saw. 
The  European  soldier,  there  so  long 
Of  needful  and  consolatory  rites 
Injuriously  deprived, 
Felt,  at  his  presence,  the  neglected  seed 
Of  early  piety 
Refreshed,  as  with  a  quickening  dew  from  Heaven. 

Native  believers  wept  for  thankfulness 
When  on  their  heads  he  laid  his  hallowing  hands  ; 
And,  if  the  saints  in  bliss 
Be  cognisant  of  aught  that  passeth  here. 
It  was  a  joy  for  Schwartz 
To  look  from  Paradise  that  hour 
Upon  his  earthly  flock. 

"  Yes,  to  the  Christian,  to  the  heathen  world, 
Heber,  thou  art  not  dead,  .  .  .  thou  canst  not  die  ! 
Nor  can  I  think  of  thee  as  lost. 
A  litde  portion  of  this  Uttle  isle 
At  first  divided  us  ;  then  half  the  globe  ; 
The  same  earth  held  us  still ;  but  when, 
O  Reginald,  wert  thou  so  near  as  now  ! 
'Tis  but  the  falling  of  a  withered  leaf,  .  .  . 
The  breaking  of  a  shell,  .  .  . 
The  rending  of  a  veil  ! 
Oh  when  that  leaf  shall  fall,  .  .  . 
That  shell  be  burst,  .  .  .  that  veil  be  rent,  .  .  .  may  then 
My  spirit  be  with  thine  !  " 


CHAPTER  XIV 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
180I-1886 

I  80 1.  Carmen  Saculare:  The  University  Latin  Prize  Poem  on  the 
Commencement  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Recited  at 
Oxford. 

1805.  A  Setise  of  Honour:  The  University  Bachelor's  Prize 
Essay.   Recited  in  the  Theatre,  Oxford,  26th  June  1 805. 

1S06.  His/ory  of  the  Cossaks  to  ihe.  year  1535.  This  unfinished 
work  was  pubHshed  in  the  Memoir  by  his  widow  (vol. 
i.),  where  it  covers  122  quarto  pages,  with  a  map  of 
the  Crimea  in  1788,  reduced  from  Dezauche's. 

1 807.  Palestine,  a  Prize  Poem,  in  Oxford  Prize  Poems.  8vo. 

I  8og.  Palestine,  to  which  is  added  The  Passage  of  the  Red  Sea  : 
a  Fragment.    4to.  London. 

1812.  Palestine:  an  Oratorio.  The  words  selected  from  a  Prize 
Poem  by  Reginald  Heber.  Sacred  Harmonic  Society. 
4to.  The  music  composed  in  the  year  181 1  by  William 
Crotch,  Mus.  Doc,  Prof,  of  Music  in  the  University  of 
Oxford.  Crotch  selected  the  passages,  and  set  them  to 
music  Finished  on  5th  November  1811,  and  first 
performed  on  21st  April  181 2  at  the  Hanover  Square 
Concert  Room.  Mr.  Frangois  Cramer  led  the  band. 
This  was  the  first  new  Oratorio  by  an  English  composer 
for  forty  years.  It  was  favourably  received,  and 
repeated  there  and  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre  in  the  series 
of  Lenten  Oratorios  in  1823.  First  part  given  at  Bir- 
mingham Musical  Festival  of  1843,  and  a  selection  at 
Worcester  Festival  of  1848.  Crotch  (born  at  Norwich 
in  1775,  <i'S'i  Taunton  in  1847)  gained  great 
reputation  by  this  Oratorio. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


353 


1822.  Palestine,  by  Heber,  and  The  Bard,  an  Ode,  by  Gray, 
translated  into  Welsh  by  W.  O.  P.  London. 

1844.  Aj/d-j/zV^?,  Poenia  Latine  Redditum.  N.L.Torre.  i2mo. 
Leamington. 

1807.  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  :  Humorous  Contributions. 

1809.  Europe:  Lines  on  the  Present  War.     8vo.  (Hatchard.) 

1809  to  1820.  Quarterly  Review  Articles. 

1 8 1 2.  Poems  and  Translations  (of  Pindar). 

1829.  New  Edition  of  above.     8vo.    John  Murray. 

1 8 1  I .  Hymns  in  Christian  Observer. 

1827.  Hymns,  -written  and  adapted  to  the  Weeidy  Church  Service 

of  tlie  Year.    [Edited  by  Amelia  Heber.]    London.  8vo. 

1828.  Fourth  Edition  of  above. 

1834.  Tenth  Edition  in  i6mo.  The  book  is  still  used  in  Hodnet 
Church. 

1812.  Morte  n Arthur:  a  Fragment,  covering  56  pages  of  vol. 

ii.  of  Memoir  by  Mrs.  Heber. 
1 86 1.  Poetical  Worlds,  with  George  Herbert's   Poetical  Works. 

8vo. 

1 8 16.  The  Masque  of  Gwendolen,  taken  from  Chaucer's  "  Wife  of 
Bath's  Tale,"  for  home  performance  at  Christmastide. 
Mrs.  Heber  published  extracts  in  her  Memoir.  Heber 
versified,  also  for  the  same  purpose,  the  Oriental  stories 
of  II  Bondocani  and 

1 8 16.  Bluebeard:  A  Serio-comic  Oriental  Romance  in  One  Act. 
Reprinted  in  1868  in  Lacy's  Acting  Plays. 

1837.  Notes  on  the  Works  of  Lord  Byron.  As  a  discriminating 
admirer  of  the  genius  and  some  of  the  works  of  Lord 
Byron,  who  was  the  cousin  of  his  friend  Wilmot  Horton, 
Reginald  Heber  wrote  many  critical  notes  of  great  value 
on  the  principal  poems.  In  this  he  was  associated  with 
Walter  Scott,  Jeffrey,  Moore,  Lockhart,  Thomas  Camp- 
bell, Samuel  Rogers,  Milman,  George  Ellis,  and 
Christopher  North.  The  notes  are  at  length  in  the 
one- volume  edition  of  Byron  published  by  John  Murray. 

1 8 16.  The  Personality  and  Office  of  the  Christian  Comforter 

Asserted  and  E.vplained  at  the  Lecture  founded  by  the 
late  Rev.  John  Bampton,  M.A.,  Canon  of  Salisbury. 
Oxford.  8vo. 

1817.  A  Reply  to  Certain  Observations  on  the  Bampton  Lectures 

of  the  Year  1815  contained  in  the  '■'■British  Critic." 
Oxford.  8vo.  The  critic  to  whom  Heber  replied  was 
a  clergyman  named  Nolan. 

2  A 


354 


BISHOP  HEBER 


1819.  A  Ser»io?i  on  Matthew  ix.  38,  preached  in  the  Cathedral 
Church  of  Chester  at  an  ordination,  26th  September 
1819.    Chester.  8vo. 

1826.  A  Sermon  on  Acts  ii.  38,  39,  preached  at  Bombay  in  aid  of 
the  S.P.G.    Calcutta.  8vo. 

1828.  Sermons  Preached  hi  E7igland.  8vo. 

1829.  American  Edition  of  above.     New  York. 

1829.  Sermons  Preached  in  India.  London.  8vo.  Both  these 
volumes  of  Sermons  were  edited  by  his  Widow.  Two 
of  Heber's  Sermons  were  separately  published,  in  1844, 
in  the  series  of  Tracts  for  Englishmen,  to  which  Bishop 
Mant,  Dr.  Manning,  Dr.  Pusey,  and  others  contri- 
buted. 

I S37.  Sen/tons  on  the  Lessons,  the  Gospel,  or  the  Epistle,  for  Every 
Sunday  in  the  Year,  preached  in  the  Parish  Church  of 
Hodnet,  Salop.  3  vols.  Edited  by  Sir  Robert  Harry 
Inglis,  Bart.  8vo. 

1822.  The  Whole  Works  of  the  Eight  Rev.  Jeremy  Taylor,  D.D., 
with  a  Life  of  the  Author  and  a  Critical  Examinatioti 
of  his  Writings.  10  volumes.  8vo.  London:  Ogle, 
Duncan,  and  Co. 

1854.  The  Same,  Revised  and  Corrected  by  Rev.  Charles  Page 
Eden,  M.A. 

1828.  The  Life  of  the  Right  Rev.  Jeremy  Taylor,  D.D.  3rd 
Edition.     London  :  Rivingtons. 

1826.  A  Charge  Delivered  to  the  Clergy  of  the  Diocese  of  Calcutta, 

2-]th  May  1824.     Calcutta.  410. 

1827.  London  Edition  of  above.  4to. 

1828.  Narrative  of  a  Journey  through  the  Upper  Provinces  of 

India  (with  Notes  upon  Ceylon),  Journey  to  Madras 
and  the  Southern  Provinces,  and  Letters  written  in  India. 
[Edited  by  Amelia  Heber.]  2  vols.  4to.  John  Murray, 
London. 

1828.  Second  Edition  of  above.    3  vols.  8vo. 

1829.  Third  and  Fourth  Editions  of  the  Same. 

1859.  Viaje  desde  Calcuta  a  Botidmy.  Fernandez  Cuesta,  Nuevo 
Viajero  Universal  (Spanish  translation  abridged),  tom  2. 
8vo. 

1829.  A  Series  of  Etigravings  from  the  Drawings  of  Reginald 
Heber,  illustrative  of  the  scenes  described  in  the  Indian 
Journal,  together  with  a  large  and  excellent  Map  of 
India  by  Walker.    410.    John  Murray. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


355 


1830.  ^  etc. :  Lithographed  by  W.  Crane,  Chester.  Oblong 

4to.  In  the  Grenville  Collection  bequeathed  to  the 
nation  by  Rt.  Hon.  Thomas  Grenville,  who  died  1846. 
This  copy  belonged  to  Hon.  Thomas  Grenville,  and  is 
entitled  "  An  Old  and  Approved  Receipt  for  Raising 
the  Devil,  founded  on  Tradition,  and  now  Offered  to  the 
Public  by  an  Amateur  of  the  Black  Arte."  It  consists 
of  nine  stanzas,  and  is  illustrated  by  eight  lithographs. 
A  jeu  d'esprif,  or  amusing  satire  on  exorcist  arts, 
ascribed,  evidently  by  Grenville  himself,  to  his  friend 
Heber,  but  not  mentioned  or  found  elsewhere  than  in 
the  British  Museum. 

1830.  The  Boke  of  the  Purple  Faucon.  Metrical  romaunt.  In 
1847  this  was  privately  printed  from  a  MS.  in  possession 
of  John  Robert  Curzon. 

1886.  From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains^  with  fifteen  illustrations. 

London.  8vo.  (Nelsons.)  A  facsimile  of  the  original 
MS.  of  this  hymn  appeared  in  the  Church  Missionary 
C?/^rt«<?r  for  April  1882.  In  the  second  verse  "savage" 
is  erased,  so  as  to  read  "  The  heathen  in  his  blindness," 
and  in  the  fourth  verse  the  first  word,  "  Waft,"  is  erased, 
and  no  word  is  substituted.  These  are  the  only  correc- 
tions in  the  famous  Hymn,  composed  at  a  white  heat  for 
Whit  Sunday  18 19. 
In  1 84 1  Heber's  Poetical  Works  were  published  for  the  first 

time  in  a  collected  form. 

The  whole  Poetical  Works  of  Rei;i?iald  Heber,  D.D.,  were 

published,  without  date,  by  Frederick  Warne  and  Co.  in  "  The 

Chandos  Classics,"  with  illustrations. 

For  ten  years  after  1 8  1 2  Heber  worked  at  a  Dictionary  of  the 

Bible,  to  which  he  turned  at  every  spare  hour,  but  his  departure 

to  India  prevented  its  completion  and  publication. 

A  few  of  Heber's  Letters  to  Charlotte  Dod  appeared  in  the 

Memoir  by  his  Widow,  but  in  a  mutilated  form.    Besides  those 

which  are  published  for  the  first  time  in  this  volume,  there  are 

many  which  have  disappeared,  but  may  yet  be  recovered.  None 

of  Charlotte  Dod's  letters  to  Heber  have  seen  the  light,  having 

probably  been  destroyed. 


APPENDIX 


THE  HEBER  FAMILY 

On  page  7  we  liave  briefly  traced  the  origin  and  descent  of  the 
Heber  or  Hayber  or  Hayberg  family  from  the  time  when  Thomas 
Heber  was  witness  to  a  deed  in  1461,  and  in  1535,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  family  became  possessors  by  purchase 
of  the  estate  of  the  Martons  in  Yorkshire.  Not  long  before  that 
time,  on  the  Shropshire  border  of  Wales,  Alice,  co-heiress  of 
Hodnet,  married  Humphrey  Vernon,  third  son  of  Sir  Henry 
Vernon  of  Haddon.  They  settled  at  Hodnet  in  the  year  I  5  14,  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  becoming  ancestors  of  the  Vernons  of 
Hodnet  and  of  the  Hebers,  their  successors  there.  Sir  Henry 
Vernon,  created  Baronet  in  1 660,  left,  besides  a  son  and  heir,  a 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  who  married  Robert  Cholmondeley  of  Vale 
Royal,  Esquire,  and  became  ancestor  of  the  Hebers  of  Hodnet. 
The  male  line  becoming  e.xtinct  by  the  death,  in  Poland,  of  Sir 
Richard  Vernon,  unmarried,  who  had  sold  property  and  woods  to 
the  Hill  family,  Hodnet  devolved  upon  his  sisters,  Diana  and 
Henrietta.  These  were  the  last  Vernon  possessors,  and  they  died 
unmarried. 

By  bequest,  Hodnet  devolved  upon  their  cousin,  Elizabeth 
Heber,  wife  of  Thomas  Heber  of  Marton,  county  of  York,  Esquire. 
Thomas  Heber  of  Marton  and  Hodnet  was  succeeded  in  1752  by 
his  son,  Richard  Heber.  On  his  death,  in  1766,  the  Hodnet 
estates  passed  to  his  second  brother,  the  Rev.  Reginald  Heber, 
who,  in  1803,  succeeded  to  the  family  estate  in  Yorkshire  also, 
by  the  death  of  his  brother's  widow.  He  died  in  1804.  His 
widow,  Mary,  the  mother  of  Bishop  Heber,  survived  her  husband 
thirty  years  and  her  distinguished  son  eight  years  ;  she  died  in 
1834,  and  was  buried  at  Hodnet. 


358 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Richard  Heber,  the  Bishop's  half-brother,  succeeded  his  father 
in  1804,  first  contested  Oxford  in  1806,  and  was  returned  M.P. 
in  1821.  He  built  the  new  library'  at  Hodnet,  and  there  he  was 
buried  in  1833.  He  sunived  his  younger  brother,  the  Bishop, 
seven  years.  On  his  death  the  manor  of  Hodnet  and  other  estates  in 
the  county  of  Shropshire  and  the  manors  of  East  and  West  Marton 
passed,  under  his  will,  to  the  Bishop's  sister,  Mar)'  Cholmondeley, 
sole  executrix,  with  remainder  to  the  Bishop's  two  daughters, 
Richard's  nieces.  In  the  year  1822  she  had  married  the  Rev. 
Charles  Cowper  Cholmondeley  of  Ormleigh,  Co.  Chester,  third 
son  of  Thomas  Cholmondeley  of  Vale  Royal,  Esquire,  M.P.  for 
the  county  of  Chester.  He  was  instituted  to  the  family  living  of 
Hodnet  in  1827,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  there  in  1830. 
His  fourth  and  youngest  son.  Rev.  Richard  Hugh,  is  now  Rector 
of  Hodnet,  whose  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  grandniece  of  Bishop 
Heber,  is  now  well  known  in  English  literature  as  the  writer  of 
Diaita  Tempest  and  other  novels.  When  Mrs.  C.  C.  Cholmondeley 
succeeded  her  brother  Richard  in  1833  she  sold  his  famous 
library  to  liquidate  the  heavy  debts  with  which  the  Heber  estates 
had  been  encumbered,  chiefly  by  the  collecting  and  purchasing  of 
the  thousands  of  rare  volumes.  On  her  death  she  was  succeeded 
by  Bishop  Heber's  elder  daughter,  Emily,  Richard's  elder  niece 
and  co-heiress. 

Emily  was  bom  in  182  I,  and  in  1839  was  married  to  Algernon 
Charles  Percy,  eldest  son  of  the  Honourable  Hugh  Percy,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  Carlisle,  and  of  his  wife,  Mary,  eldest  daughter  of  the 
Most  Rev.  Charles  Manners  Sutton,  Archbishop  of  Canterburj'. 
The  Bishop  of  Carlisle's  brother  was  fifth  Duke  of  Northumberland. 
By  sign-manual  the  husband  of  Bishop  Heber's  elder  daughter 
assumed  the  additional  surname  of  Heber  prefixed  to  that  of  Percy. 
They  have  five  sons  and  six  daughters,  with  many  grandchildren. 
In  1880  Maude  Ellen,  the  fourth  daughter,  was  married  to  Colonel 
Sir  Edward-Law  Durand,  C.B.,  Bart,  (created  1892).  Their  eldest 
son  is  Edward  Percy  Marion  Durand,  born  in  India  in  1884. 
Mrs.  Heber- Percy  and  her  husband  still  (1895)  survive  at  Hodnet 
Hall. 

To  the  late  Sir  Henry  Durand,  K.C.S.I.,  C.B.,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  Punjab,  who  was  an  honoured  cadet  of  the 
Northumberland  family  and  the  friend  of  Adoniram  Judson  and 
of  Alexander  Duff,  through  his  eldest  son.  Sir  Edward  Durand, 
Bart.,  the  name  of  Bishop  Heber  is  thus  further  linked.  Sir 
Henry's  second  son  and  biographer  ( The  Life  of  Major-Geiieral 
Sir  He?iry  Marion  Durand,  K.C.S.I.,  C.B.,  of  the  Royal  Engineers, 


APPENDIX 


359 


in  two  volumes,  1883),  Sir  H.  Mortimer  Durand,  K.C.S.I.,  dis- 
tinguished himself  as  Foreign  Secretary  to  the  Government  of 
India,  like  his  father,  and  is  now  Her  Majesty's  Ambassador  to 
the  Court  of  Persia. 

The  name  and  the  virtues  of  the  Chief  Missionary  to  the  East 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Reginald  Heber, 
are  likely  to  be  perpetuated  by  successive  generations  of  Heber- 
Percies.  His  grandson,  and  the  heir  to  Hodnet,  is  Algernon 
Heber-Percy,  formerly  of  the  Royal  Navy,  born  in  1845.  His 
great-grandson  is  Algernon  Hugh,  born  in  1869. 

Bishop  Heber's  younger  daughter,  Harriet  Sarah,  co-heiress,  was 
the  wife  of  the  son  of  his  greatest  friend,  the  Rev.  John  Thornton, 
Vicar  of  Ewell,  Surrey.    She  died  in  1888. 

Thus  in  Bishop  Heber's  daughters  and  their  children  are  united 
the  historical  and  ecclesiastical  families  of  the  De  Hodenets  and 
Vernons,  Hebers  and  Percies,  of  the  Dukes  of  Northumberland, 
of  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  of  the  greatest  of  the  Clap- 
ham  philanthropists  Henry  and  John  Thornton,  to  whom  Mr. 
Leslie  Stephen  has  again  done  justice  in  the  Life  of  Sir  James 
Fitzjames  Stephen,  Bart.,  K. C.S.I.  (1895). 

Bishop  Heber's  widow  married  Sir  Demetrius,  Count  Valsa- 
machi,  G.C.M.G.,  of  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  died  at  Hodnet  on 
13th  May  1870. 


INDEX 


Abdul  Mussee'h,  235,  297 
Abelard  and  Heloiza,  74 
Abo,  32 

Acland,  Sir  T.  D.,  132 
Adam,  Mr. ,  216,  222 
Adlington,  missionary,  298 
Africa,  347 
Agra,  234,  245 
Aitchison,  Sir  C.  U.,  332 
Akbar  the  Great,  234 
Akbar  Shati,  229 
Alakananda  River,  239 
Alambura,  312 
Alexander,  the  Czar,  35,  42 
Allamparva,  313 

All  Souls,  Oxford,  17,  26,  50,  128, 
343 

Alniora,  214,  223 

Alt,  missionary,  139 

American  Episcopal  Churches,  347 

Amherst,  Lady,  157,  161,  167 

  Lord,    126,    137,    150,  216, 

224 

Amsterdam,  301 
Amusements,  62 
Ararat,  301 
Arcot,  326 
Armenians,  42,  300 
Arminianism,  54.  77 
Army,  British,  302,  304 
Arracan,  294 
Asoka,  268 
Atonement,  the,  332 
Austerlitz,  45 
AustraUa,  144,  347 
Austria,  45 
Ava  city,  294 


Ava  temple,  266 

Avdall's  History  of  Armenia,  301 

Baddegama,  275,  288 
Bahadur  Shah,  229 
Bahar,  200,  205 
Bampton  Lecture,  114,  353 
Banks,  the  traveller,  89 
Banswara,  239 
Baptism,  284 
Bareilly,  213 

Barnes,  Archdeacon,  249,  285 

 Sir  E. ,  275,  289 

Baroda,  241 

Barrackpore,  157,  170,  174,  177 
Barreah,  240 
Barrow,  95 

Basel  Missionary  Seminary,  139 
Bath  at  Trichinopoly,  336 
Baxter,  Richard,  6,  51 
Bayley,  W.  B. ,  340 
Begum  Sumroo,  228 
Belanger,  M.,  313 
Bell's  schools,  166,  306 
Benares  Mission,  139,  205 

 College,  253 

Bengal,  163,  170,  174,  191,  200 
Bentinck,  Lord  William,   137,  255, 

307.  332 
Berkeley,  Bishop,  4,  348 
Berlin,  47 

  Mission,  316 

 Missionary  Seminary,  139 

Bermuda,  5 
Bernier,  233 
Bhadrinath,  218 
Bhagulpoor,  198 


362  BISHOP 

Bheels,  239,  247 

Bhurtpoor,  225,  294,  302 

Bible  Society,  British  and  Foreign, 

vii.,  61,  106 
Bible,  the,  194 

Bibliography  of  Bishop  Heber,  352 
Bindrabun,  225 
Bird,  Judge,  327 
Bishoprics  in  the  East,  346 
Bishop's  College,  81,  156,  340 
Black  Town,  Madras,  309 
Blunt,  Rev.  J.  J.,  146 
Boehler,  10 
Bogwangola,  187 
Bombay  bishopric,  346 

 city,  260,  339 

 Mission,  139 

Bowley,  missionary,  138,  209,  297 
Bow-meeting  songs,  24,  102 
Brasenose  College,  16,  343 
"  Brightest  and  best,"  hymn,  227 
Brighton,  87 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 

vii. ,  61,  io5 
Broach,  242 
Brougham,  Lord,  72 
Brown,  David,  chaplain,  139 

 William,  4 

Brunton,  H. ,  42 

Bryce,  chaplain,  154 

Buchanan,  Claudius,  139,  155,  285 

Buddhism  in  Ceylon,  275,  290 

Buddhist  shrines,  265 

Buonaparte  campaigns,  28,  45 

Burdwan  Mission,  139 

Burgess,  Dr. ,  262 

Burma,  172,  185,  294 

Butler,  Bishop,  348 

Butterworth,  Mr.,  132 

Buxar,  204 

Byron,  91,  98,  100,  301,  353 

Cadwallon,  300 
Csemraerer,  missionary,  315 
Calcutta   bishopric,    81,    116,  157, 
340.  346 

  Bishop's  College,  81,  156,  340 

 city,  148,  153,  163,  301 

Caldwell,  Bishop,  4,  324,  327,  339, 
349 

Calvinism,  54,  77,  102 
Cambridge,  2 

Canning,  George,  137,  307 


HEBER 

Canning,  Lord,  227 

Carey,  William,  3,  10,  54,  81,  140, 

158,  198,  256,  275,  339 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  on  Heroes  and  St. 

Olaf,  2 
Carnatic,  Nawab  of,  308 
Caste,  315.  348 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  137 
Ceylon  Mission,  139 

 Colony,  275,  289,  331 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  4 
Chalookyas,  312 
Chamberlain,  missionary,  223 
Chambers,  Sir  C,  271 
Chamich,  Michael,  301 
Chandernagore,  187 
Chandpal  Ghat,  291 
Chantrey,  sculptor,  339 
Chaplains,  139,  153,  182,  310 
Charak  Pooja,  179 
Charnock,  Job,  viii. ,  153 
Chater,  missionary,  275 
Cheshire,  6 
Chester,  343 

Children  in  India,  165,  292 
Chillumbrum,  315 
China,  153,  222 
China  bazaar,  301 
Chinsurah,  141,  300 
Chittagong,  185 
Cholera,  162 

Cholmondeley,  14,  78,  135,  357 
Chota  Nagpoor,  347 
Chowbuttia,  216 
Chowringhee,  148 
Christian  David,  162,  279 
Christian  Observer,  79 
Christian,  Rev.  T. ,  199 
Chunar.  209 
Chuprah,  205 
Church,  Dean,  54 

  establishment   in    India,  154, 

 Free,  of  Scotland,  200,  316 

 Greek,  38,  42 

 Latin,  284,  324 

 of  Christ,  80,  341 

 of  England,  14,  125,  154,  290, 

330.  346 
Cinnamon  culture,  278 
Civilisation  and  Christianity,  350 
Clapham  Sect,  53,  359 
Clarke's  Travels,  33 


INDEX 


363 


Clerical  meeting,  238 

Cleveland,  A.,  199 

Clive,  6,  59,  326 

Coast  Mission,  295 

Coke,  Dr.,  275 

Coleridge,  96,  100 

Colombo,  275,  277,  347 

Colquhoun,  Sir  R. ,  222,  243 

Combaconum,  320 

Combermere,  6,  16,  138,  294,  302, 

318,  340 
Comorin,  Cape,  324 
Confirmation  address,  333 
Constable,  A. ,  96 
Conversion,  10 

Cooke,  Miss,  139,  167,  168,  302 
Cook's  voyages,  289 
Coote,  Sir  Eyre,  204 
Cordier,  M.,  313 

Cornwallis,  Marquess,  153,  205,  225 
Corporation,   P.  G. ,  in  New  Eng- 
land, 81 

Corrie,  119,  139,  147,  156,  298,  337, 

340 
Coryate,  242 

Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  274 
Cossaks,  41,  43 
Cotta,  27s 

Cottayam  College,  316,  324 
Cotton,  Bishop,  6,  273,  302,  324, 
346 

 Sydney,  6 

Cowper's  hymns,  90 
Craven,  7 
Crimea,  43 
Cromwell,  81 
Crotch,  70,  352 
Cuddalor,  153,  314 
Czar  of  Russia,  35 

Dacca,  187,  192,  194 
Dancing-girls  in  India,  313 
Danish  commerce,  144 
Dannemora  mine,  32 
Dartmouth,  Lord,  79 
De  Hodenets,  51,  357,  359 
Dehra  Doon,  223 
Delhi,  229 

De  Richemont,  Vicomte,  313 
Diamond  Harbour,  147 
Dies  Iras,  hymn,  85 
Dinapoor,  206 
Dissenters,  55,  78,  282 


Dod,  Charlotte,  22,  48,  68,  76,  87, 
99,  loi,  120,  133,  141,  162,  189, 
215.  243.  342.  355 

 Mrs,,  of  Edge,  128 

Doran,  missionary,  336 

D'Oyley,  Sir  C. ,  204 

Dravidian  dynasties,  326 

 temples,  312 

Drawing,  15 

Dubois,  Ahh6,  183,  195,  305 
Duff,  Alexander,  3,  255,  323,  358 
Duncan,  Jonathan,  265 
Durand  family,  358 
Dutch  in  Ceylon,  279,  290,  331 
Dying,  igo 

East  India  Company's  administra- 
tion, 211,  319,  349 

 charters,  138,  152,  346 

Echmiatzin,  301 

Edinburgh  Review.  97 

Education  in  India,  166,  195,  253, 
273 

Edwardes,  H. ,  6 
Eisteddfod,  88 
Ekka  cart,  204 
Elephanta,  262 
Elliot,  Hugh,  307 

Elphinstone,  Mountstuart,  138,  248, 

261,  270,  294 
Empire  of  Great  Britain,  19,  349 
Erasmus,  343 
Erskine,  W.,  262 
Eurasians,  273 

Famine,  Bengal,  of  1777,  205 

Fatehpoor  Sikri,  234 

Fenn,  missionary,  334 

Fergusson  on  architecture,  264 

Finland,  32 

Fisher,  chaplain,  226 

Flaxman's  Schwartz  monument,  321 

Fletcher  of  Madeley,  76 

Forman,  John,  4 

Fort  St.  David,  314 

 WiUiam,  148,  169 

Fowler,  Sir  H.  H. ,  332 
Francklin,  Colonel,  199 
Eraser,  Professor  C,  5 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  200,  316 
Free  School,  Calcutta,  306 
French,  Bishop,  4 
I   language,  313 


364 


BISHOP  HEBER 


"From  Greenland's  icy  mountains," 

82,  176,  275,  3SS 
Froude  on  illustrious  men,  2 
Fry,  Mrs.,  72 
Fuller,  Andrew,  4,  54 
Fultah,  147,  303 
Fyfe,  Captain,  320,  328 

Galitzin,  Prince,  42 

Galle,  27s 

Gan&a,  326 

Ganges,  187,  195 

Gangotri,  218 

Garden  Reach,  14S 

Garrows,  293 

Garwhal,  216 

Gell,  Bishop,  348 

General  Assemby  on  Missions,  250 

George  IV.,  49,  70,  120,  133 

Gerard,  Captain,  238 

Gerick^,  missionary,  321 

Gharapoori,  262 

Ghazipoor,  205 

Gifford,  editor,  90,  100 

Gladstone,  W.E.,  on  Heber,2,i04, 137 

  translation  of  Heber's  Verses  to 

his  Wife,  188 

 Mrs.,  103,  104 

Glennie,  Archdeacon,  275,  286 
Glynne  family,  90,  102 
Gnanaolivu,  missionary,  327 
Goa,  324 
Goorkha  war,  217 
Gothenburg,  29 

Government  House,  Calcutta,   1 50. 
163 

Governor-General  of  India,  165 
Grant,  Charles,  3,  52,  140 
Great  Britain's  responsibility,  288 
Great  Mogul,  229 
Greek  Church,  38,  42 
Greenwood,  Rev.  W. ,  139,  209 
Gregorian  Armenians.  301 
Greig,  P.,  42 

Grey,  SirC,  18,  21,  294,  340 
Grosvenor  family,  69 
Grundemann,  Dr.,  316 

Hall,  General,  338 

Hare,  Augustus  J.  C. ,  64,  128,  130. 

342 

Hanngton,  J.  H. ,  340 
Hastings,  Lord,  137 


Hastings,  Warren,  153 
Havelbagh,  222 
Havelock,  General,  204 
Havergal,  W.  H.,  81 
Hawarden  Castle,  90,  102 
Hawkstone  Park,  51 
Hayberg,  7,  357 

Heber,  Bishop,  place  in  biography, 
2  ;  birth,  8  ;  boyhood,  10  ;  on 
conversion,  10;  precocity,  11; 
schools,  12  ;  O.xford,  16  ;  Latin 
poem,  19  ;  Palatine,  20  ;  Char- 
lotte Dod,  22;  Bow-meeting  songs, 
24  ;  prize  essay,  26  ;  missionary 
enthusiasm,  27  ;  makes  the  grand 
tour,  28  ;  his  journal,  33  ;  in 
Petersburg,  35  ;  in  Moscow,  39  ; 
the  Crimea,  42  ;  Austerlitz  and 
Jena,  46  ;  welcomed  at  Hodnet, 
49  ;  ordained  and  instituted  rector, 
50 ;  introduced  to  Wilberforce, 
52  ;  relation  to  church  parties,  54  ; 
a  parish  priest,  55  ;  marriage,  57.; 
builds  new  rectory,  58  ;  preaches 
for  Bible  Society,  61  ;  on  amuse- 
ments, 62  ;  prayers,  63  ;  friend- 
ship with  Maria  Leycester,  64  ; 
preaches  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  67  ; 
friendship  with  Charlotte  Dod,  68  ; 
Mrs.  Fry,  72  ;  on  Scott's  Force 
of  Truth,  ;  first  hymns,  79  ; 
"  From  Greenland's  icy  moun- 
tains," 81  ;  on  hymn-writing,  84; 
his  fifty-seven  hymns,  90 ;  edits 
Jeremy  Taylor's  works  and  writes 
his  life,  92  ;  his  Quarterly  Review 
articles,  96  ;  Bow  -  meeting  at 
Hawarden  Castle  and  Mrs.  Glad- 
stone, 102  ;  missionary  enthusiasm 
as  in  Palestine,  105  ;  proposes 
union  of  Church's  two  Missionary- 
Societies,  108 ;  missionary  sermons, 
III  ;  Bampton  Lecture,  114  ; 
offered  Bishopric  of  Calcutta,  116; 
appointed  by  the  King,  120  ;  fare- 
wells, 127  ;  leaves  Hodnet,  131  ; 
consecration  at  Lambeth,  133  ; 
sails  for  Calcutta,  141  ;  first  ex- 
perience of  Bengal,  147  ;  first 
impressions  of  the  city,  150  ;  con- 
trasted with  his  predecessor,  155  ; 
welcomed  by  all,  156  ;  describes  a 
suttee,  158  ;  life  in  Calcutta,  161  : 


INDEX 


365 


girls'  schools,  166  ;  pictures  of 
Bengal,  170  ;  visitation  charge, 
182  ;  first  Burmese  war,  185  ; 
begins  tour  in  East  and  North 
India,  187;  "  Verses  to  his  Wife," 
187;  Stow's  death,  190;  up  the 
Ganges,  195;  "An  Evening 
Walk  in  Bengal,"  106  ;  Heber's 
hill  mission,  198  ;  Augustus  Cleve- 
land, 199  ;  in  Bahar  and  Hindo- 
stan,  200 ;  at  Ccnares,  207  ;  on 
native  marriage  and  divorce,  208  ; 
at  Chunar,  209;  in  Oudh,  211; 
sick,  212  ;  climbing  the  Himalayas 
to  Almora,  216;  tiger  -  shooting, 
219  ;  in  Almora,  222  ;  on  the  tea 
plant,  223  ;  at  Meerut,  226  ;  on 
Government  intolerance,  227  ;  at 
Delhi,  229  ;  reception  by  the 
titular  Emperor,  230 ;  the  palace 
of  the  Great  Mogul,  233  ;  at 
Agra,  234  ;  the  Taj  Mahal  de- 
scribed, 235  ;  Fatehpoor  Sikri, 
235  ;  through  Central  India  and 
Rajpootana,  237  ;  among  the 
Bheels,  240  ;  at  Baroda  and 
Kaira,  241  ;  reaches  Bombay, 
243  ;  simplicity  of  his  dress,  249  ; 
on  missions  to  the  Hindoos,  250  ; 
educational  missions,  253  ;  letter 
to  Marshman,  255  ;  to  Maria  Ley- 
cester,  259  ;  contrasts  Bombay 
with  Calcutta,  260  ;  Elephanta 
described,  262  ;  Kanh^ri,  265  ; 
Karl^,  268  ;  Poona,  269  ;  on 
Mounlstuart  Elphinstone,  270 ; 
visitation  at  St.  Thomas's  Cathedral, 
273  ;  on  soldiers'  children,  274  ; 
lands  at  Ceylon,  275  ;  Galle  and 
Colombo,  276  ;  on  conferences 
with  other  missionaries,  281  ;  at 
Cotta  and  Kandy,  283  ;  letter  to 
his  mother,  289  ;  return  to  Cal- 
cutta, 292  ;  on  the  siege  of  I?hurt- 
poor,  294  ;  on  re-ordination  of 
Lutherans,  295  ;  ordination  of 
Abdool  Mussee'h,  298  ;  conversa- 
tional power,  299  ;  a  friend  of  the 
Armenians,  300  ;  with  Dr.  Joshua 
Marshman  at  Fulta,  303  ;  voyage 
to  Madras,  304  ;  visitation  at  St. 
George's,  Madras,  307  ;  Sir 
Thomas  Munro,  307  ;  overwork, 


309  ;  on  tour  for  the  last  time, 
312  ;  at  Pondicherry,  313  ;  among 
the  pagodas,  315  ;  on  the  Ncs- 
torians  or  .Syro-Jacobites,  316  ;  on 
the  evil  of  periodical  land-assess- 
ments, 318  ;  at  Tanjor,  319  ;  at 
Schwartz's  tomb,  320  ;  Maharaja 
Serfojee,  323  ;  missionary  plans, 
324  ;  reaches  Trichinopoly ,  327  ; 
on  Schwartz,  329  ;  Heber's  last 
letter,  331  ;  last  services,  332  ; 
favourite  hymn,  [335  ;  death  in 
the  bath,  337  ;  burial,  338  ;  eulo- 
gies and  memorials,  339  ;  window 
in  Malpas  Church,  344  ;  Heber's 
successors  and  the  extension  of 
Christianity  in  the  East,  346  ; 
Bishop  Butler's  sermonj  349  ; 
Southey  on,  350;  bibliography,  352 

Heber  family,  357 

 Mary,  9,  135,  200,  358 

 Memorial  School,  327 

  Mrs.,  Bishop's  mother,  8,  11, 

119,  135,  305,  357 

 Reginald,  M.A. ,  7,  25,  293,  357 

  Richard,  8,  65,  75,  96,  97,  358 

 Thomas  C. ,  9,  63 

Heber-Percy  family,  78,  145,  170, 
343.  3S7 

Hemans,  Mrs.,  86 

Henry,  Matthew,  6 

Herbert,  Captain,  223 

Hills  of  Hawkstonc,  51,  56,  70,  357 

Himalayas,  217,  244 

Hindostani,  203,  212,  298 

Hindus,  252,  308 

Hislop,  Stephen,  3 

History  of  Missions,  1,  350 

 Neander's,  i 

Hodges,  Bishop,  316 

Hodnet,  7,  51,  78,  128,  130,  343,  357 

  Rectory,  58,  63 

Home,  artist,  211 

Hoogli  River,  147,  185 

Hooker,  14,  95 

Horton,  R.  J.  Wilmot,  67,  329 
Hough,  James,  207,  291 
How,  Bishop,  III 
Howard,  19,  44 

Howley,  Bishop,  of  London,  82,  loi 
Humboldt,  238 
Hungary,  45 
Hutchinson,  Lord,  50 


366  BISHOP  HEBER 


Hymnology,  79,  87,  93,  101,  335, 


Idolatry,  147 

India,  conversion  of,  i,   184,  202, 
250 

 in  1824,  137,  194 

Influenza  in  India,  212 
Inglis,  Dr.  John,  4 

 Sir  R.  H.,  85,  352 

Ispahan,  301 

Jaffna,  275 
Jambukeshvvar,  326 
James,  Bishop,  346 
Jats,  294 

Jay  Narain  Ghosal,  207 
Jeffrey,  Francis,  97 
Jena,  47 

Jews,  missions  to,  105 
Jeypoor,  225 
Johnston,  Bishop,  346 
Judson,  4,  358 

Kaira,  242 
Kali,  330 

Kandy,  275,  288,  289 

Kangra,  223 

Kanh^ri,  265 

Karl^  temple,  266,  268 

Kavari  River,  319,  326 

Keble,  92 

Kedernath,  218 

Ken,  Bishop,  83 

Kennedy,  Lieutenant,  216 

Kenyon,   Rev.  and  Hon.   W.   T. , 

viii.,  lie 
Khandala,  268 
Kidderpore,  148 
Kiernander,  missionary,  153 
King  George  IV.,  49 

 William  III.,  152 

Klein,  Miss,  339 
Knolles,  15 

Kohlhoff,  missionary,  320,  337 
Kremlin,  39 
Krishna,  234 
Kumaon,  217,  222 

Laccadive  islanders,  291 
Lacroi.x,  missionary,  300 
Ladakh,  222 


Lahore  bishopric,  347 
Lake,  Lord,  229,  294 
Lambrick,  missionary,  280 
Lancasterian  system,  168 
Landhar,  216 
Land-tax,  318 
Latin  hymns,  86 
Law,  M. ,  204 
Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  273 

 Sir  John,  302 

Lawrie,  chaplain,  307 

Layard  family  in  Ceylon,  275 

Le  Bas,  Professor,  154 

Leslie,  missionary,  204 

Leycester,  Maria,  64,  128,  258,  342 

Leyden,  Dr.  John,  300 

Liverpool,  Lord,  137 

Lockhart,  J. ,  68 

Lord,  chaplain,  153 

Loring,  Archdeacon,  119,  155 

Love,  Dr.  J.,  4 

Lucknow,  210,  347 

Lushington,  C. ,  210,  340 

 J. ,  209 

Lutheran  missionaries,  295 
 view  of  caste,  316,  348 

Macaulay,  52,  255 
Machiavel,  15 
Mackenzie,  Holt,  340 
Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  262 
Macleod,  N.,  205 
M'Leod,  Sir  Donald,  204 
Macphail,  Dr.  J.  M.,  200 
Madras,  305,  346 

 Christian  College,  317 

Mahabalipoorani,  312 

Maine,  Sir  H. ,  208 

Malabar,  274 

Malayalam  churches,  316 

Malcolm,  Sir  John,  98,  138,  237 

Malpas,  6,  128 

Mant,  Bishop,  92 

Marathas,  246 

Margoschis,  missionary,  316 

Market  Drayton,  59 

Marshman,  John  Clarke,  256,  332 

 Joshua,  158,  255,  303 

Marriage  and  divorce,  208 

 law,  302 

Marton,  7,  357 

Martyn,   Henry,   3,  10,    114,  139, 
155.  297 


INDEX 


367 


Maserfelth,  9 

Matabhanga  River,  185 

Mayaverani,  319 

May,  missionary,  141 

Mead,  missionary,  320 

Mechitarist  Armenians,  301 

Meerut,  226 

Meletian  clergy,  297 

Meru,  218,  222 

Metcalfe,  Lord,  138 

Middleton,    Bishop,  81,    115,  133, 

154,  280,  346 
Mill,  Principal,  139,  147,  340 
Milman,  Bishop,  346 

 Dean,  18,  85,  98 

Milton,  96 

Missionaries,  182,  257,  286,  300,  349 
Missionary  appeals,  106,  11 1,  333, 
349 

 chaplains,  154,  182,  284,  347 

 conferences,  281 

 methods,  160,  213,  250,  316, 

324.  348 

■  poem,  xix. ,  105 

Mission  Boards,  107 

Missions,  history  of,    i,   330,  342, 

349.  350 
Mohammedans,  194,  211,  252 
Monghyr,  199 
Moorcroft,  traveller,  222 
Moore,  T. ,  96 
Moreton  Say,  59 
Morton,  missionary,  300 
Moscow,  39,  165,  301 
Mullik  family,  292 
Munro,  Sir  Thomas,  138,  307,  340 
Murray,  John,  96 
Mussooree,  216 
Mutiny  of  the  Guards,  71 

 of  1857,  224,  229 

Muttra,  234 

Nadiad,  241 
Naini-Tal,  216 
Nandidevi,  222 
Nasrani  Christians,  317 
Native  Christians,  330,  332 
Neasdon,  12 
Nestorians,  214 
Newgate,  72 
Newton,  Isaac,  16 

  John,  79 

New  Zealand,  347 


Nolan,  Mr.,  353 

Nonsense  and  happiness,  54 

Northamptonshire  Regiment,  338 

Norton,  missionary,  139 

Norway,  29 

Novatian  clergy,  297 

Nusseerabad,  237 

OCHTERLONY,  Sir  D.  ,  237 

October  weather,  88 
Olney  hymns,  78 

Ordination  and  re-ordination,  295 
Oriental  Churches,  301 
Orlof  diamond,  42 
Oswald,  St.,  9 
Oudh,  210 

Ouseley,  Sir  Gore,  147 
O.xford,  2,  16,  24s,  343 

Pacific,  347 
Paget,  Sir  E. ,  226 
Palamkotta,  295 
Palestine  Oratorio,  70,  352 

 poem,  91,  105,  340,  352 

Palmer,  Sir  R. ,  306 

Panchway,  186 

Panwell,  267 

Paravas,  324 

Parish  work,  55 

Parsons,  chaplain,  150,  156 

Patna,  205 

Pearl  fishery,  278 

Percy  family,  358 

Persian,  299 

Petersburg,  33 

Phallic  cult,  315 

Phillimore,  ).,  Prof.,  70 

Philoctetes,  127 

Pindarees,  246 

Pitt,  William,  33,  41 

Plassey,  153 

Pohle,  missionary,  328 

Poland,  44 

Pondichcrry,  313 

Poona,  269 

Portuguese,  152 

Potsdam,  47 

Prabhu  Deen,  Sepoy,  226 
Prayer-Book,  203 
Prayers,  150,  213,  323,  343 
Press,  Free,  272 
Prinsep,  J. ,  262 
 W. ,  340 


368  BISHOP 

Psalms  in  praise,  79,  83 
Ptolemy,  the  geographer,  326 
Puller,  Sir  C. ,  193 

Quarterly  Review,  68,  81,  96, 
350 

Queen  Caroline  of  Brunswick,  71 
Queen-Empress  Victoria,  344,  349 
Quilon,  331 

Rajmahal,  198 

 Mission,  213 

Rajpootana,  239 
Ramadan,  39 
Rameswaram,  275 
Rammohun  Roy,  168 
Ramnad,  324 
Ramsay,  Sir  H.,  214,  224 
Rangoon  bishopric,  347 
Ranikhet,  216 
Reichardt,  missionary,  297 
Rhadakant  Deb,  161 
Rhenius,  missionary,  139 
Rhode  Island,  5 
Richards,  missionary,  316 
Robinson,  chaplain,  271,  274,  327, 
337 

Rock-cut  temples,  262 
Roe,  Sir  T. ,  242 
Rogers,  S. ,  96 
Rohilcund,  214 

Roman  Catholicism,  61,  183,  305 
Rottler,  missionary,  306,  310 
Rowton,  51 
Rugby,  306 

Ruskin,  John,  on  India,  xix 
Russell,  Lord  John,  102 
Russia,  33,  98 

Sabathoo,  239 
Sadras,  312 
St.  Asaph,  80,  81 
St.  George's,  Madras,  305 
St.  John's  Cathedral,  Calcutta,  150, 
153.  182 

 Church,  Trichinopoly,  332,  339, 

348 

St.  Nazareth,  Calcutta,  301 
St.  Oswald,  9 

St.  Oswald's,  Malpas,  9,  343 
St.  PaiJ's,  London,  134,  343 

 Cathedral,  Calcutta,  150 

St.  Thomas's,  Bombay,  273 


HEBER 

Salsette,  265 

San  Lazzaro,  Venice,  301 
Sanskrit  literature,  254 
Santalia,  198,  200,  293 
Sargent,  Bishop,  349 
Satyagooroos,  194 
Schmidt,  Deocar,  295 
Schreyvogel,  missionary,  315,  327, 
336 

Schwartz,  3,  310,  315,  320,  321, 

329.  337 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  20,  65,  96 

 T. ,  Force  of  Truth,  76 

Scottish  Mission  in  Caucasus,  42 

 tunes,  81,  92 

Scudder,  John,  4,  275 
Sebastopol,  43 
Sepoy  Christian,  226 
Serampore,  144,  157 

 College,  255 

Serfojee,  Maharaja,  322 
Sermons,  Heber's,  106,  354 
Seven  Pagodas,  312 
Sewajee,  329 
.Shah  Alum,  229 
Shah  Jehan,  234 

Shipley,  Bishop  and  Dean,  57,  342 

Shrewsbury,  106 

Sikh  in  Kumaon,  221 

Simeon,  C. ,  3,  156 

Simla,  216 

Singhalese,  276,  289 

Siva  pagodas,  315,  326 

Slave  trade,  52 

Smith,  'William,  52 

Society,  Bible,  vii.,  61,  106 

 Bombay  Education,  273 

 C.  M.  S.,  108,  III,  156,  208, 

27s.  349 

 London  Missionary,  275,  307, 

320 

 S.P.C.K.,  106,  13s,  156,  i66, 

293.  315.  349 

 S.P.G.,  109,  156,  292,  339 

 'Wesleyan,  275 

Soldiers  in  India,  269 
Southey,  70,  96,  350 
Speechly,  Bishop,  316 
Spenser,  13 

Sperschneider,  missionary,  320 
Srirangam,  326 
Stael,  Madame  de,  98 
Stanley,  E. ,  64 


INDEX 


369 


Stephen,  Sir  James,  53 

 Sir  J.  Fitzjames,  359 

Stcriiliold,  T.,  86 

Stevenson,  Rev.  J.,  262 

Stewart,  Lieutenant,  139 

Stockholm,  32 

Stoke-upon-Tern,  51 

Stow,  Rev.  M. ,  64,  66,  130,  189 

Stuart,  Prince  Charles  Edward,  335 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  343 

Styche,  59 

Sumroo,  Begum,  228 
Surat,  242 
Suttee,  157 

Sutton ,  Manners, Archbp.  ,82,133,358 
Sweden,  31 
Swift,  Dean,  4 
Swinging  orgie,  179 
Syrian  Christians,  316 

Taj  Mahal,  234,  245 
Taliessin,  300 
Tambresra,  240 

Tamil  Missions,  275,  321,  336,  348, 
349 

Tanjor,  319,  339 
Tartary,  214 
Tate  and  Brady,  84 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  36,  92,  354 
Tea  plant,  223 

Teignmouth,  Lord,  14,  26,  52,  106 
Temple,  Sir  Richard,  139 
Tennyson  on  hymns,  90 
Terai  Indian,  218 
Tern  River,  51 
Terry,  chaplain,  243 
Thackeray,  53 
Theodorct,  297 
Theology,  96 

"  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth,"  227 
Thomason,  chaplain,  139,  156 
Thornton,  John,  12,  52,  120 

 Mrs.,  161,  172,  198,  359 

 Rev.  John,  12,  359 

Tibet,  214 
Tiger-shooting,  219 
TiUotson,  95 
Tinnevelli  bishopric,  347 

 Missions,  139,  319,  324 

Titaghur,  157,  170 
Todd,  Colonel,  237 
Toleration,  227 
Tranquebar,  315,  326 


Travancore,  317,  324,  347 
Trichinopoly  Missions,  327,  339 

  Rock,  326 

Trigonometrical  survey,  238 
Troitza,  39 
Tulsi  Lake,  264 
Turner,  Bishop,  346 
Tuticorin,  327 

Udny,  George,  140 
Ummerapoora,  198 
United  Armenians,  301 
Upsala,  31 

Valsamachi,  Count,  359 
Vasco  da  Gama,  308 
Vaughan,  Dean,  346 
Venice,  301 
Venn,  H.,  4,  100 
Vepery  Church,  310 
Vernon  family,  7,  357 
Vishnu,  326 
Volunteers,  22,  25,  49 

Wallich,  Dr.,  157 

Walpole,  Sir  R.,  5 

Watts,  Isaac,  82 

Wellesley,  Marquess,  148 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  70,  318 

Welsh  language,  88,  299 
I   Presbyterians,  293 

Wesley,  Charles,  82,  335 

 John,  10,  98 

Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  275 

Westcott,  Bishop,  349 

West,  Sir  E. ,  18,  271 
I  Whatley,  54 

Whitchurch,  9 
I  Whitefield,  George,  99 
'  Widow-burning,  (cf  Suttee 

Wife,  Hcber's  Verses  to,  188 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  52 

 .  W.,  52,  275 

Wilkinson,  Rev.  M. ,  140 

William  III.,  152 

Williams,  hymn-writer,  82 

Wilson,  Bishop  D.,  4,  150,  285,  316, 
336,  346,  348 

  "Christopher  North,"  21,  91 

i  99 

 ■  Dr.  John,  3,  262,  274,  339 

 Mrs. ,  see  Cooke 

'  Woman,  75,  160 


370 


BISHOP  HEBER 


Womnn  in  India,  167 
Wrckin,  The,  7 
Wrexham,  6,  81 
Wright,  chaplain,  336 
Writers'  Buildings,  153 
Wynn,  Sir  C.  W.  W., 
300,  315,  343 


Xavier,  F.  ,  185,  324 

Yale  University,  5 
Yeh,  Commissioner,  150 
Yule,  Sir  George,  200 

ZlEGENBALG,  3IO 

Zofiany,  Sir  John,  153 


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